Week in review

In the News

Federal Reserve opts against cutting rates

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gave little indication Wednesday of bowing anytime soon to President Donald Trump's demands that he cut interest rates.

The Fed left its key short-term interest rate unchanged for the fifth time this year, at about 4.3%. Powell also signaled it could take months for the Fed to determine if Trump's tariffs will push up inflation temporarily or more persistently. His comments suggested a rate cut in September is now less likely. Two Fed members broke with the majority to vote for a cut.

Prices rose 2.6% in June compared with a year ago, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

CLIMATE: Amid a record- breaking heat wave in the Southeast U.S., the Trump administration on Tuesday proposed revoking the scientific "endangerment finding," the legal underpinning of several regulations on greenhouse gas emissions and that fight climate change under the Clean Air Act.

LAWSUIT: More than 20 mostly Democratic-led states sued the Trump administration Tuesday over its efforts to cut Medicaid payments to the nation's largest abortion provider: Planned Parenthood. The move came in response to the package of tax breaks and spending cuts Trump signed July 4.

SOCIAL SECURITY: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's new children's savings program included in Republicans' federal spending and tax cuts law "is a back door for privatizing Social Security."

In the News

President signs order imposing more tariffs

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday evening to impose new tariffs on a wide swath of U.S. trading partners that will go in effect Aug. 7.

The order came as the White House announced deals with various nations and blocs ahead of a self-imposed deadline Friday. Earlier, Trump said he would enter into a 90-day negotiating period with Mexico, one of the largest U.S. trading partners, with a 25% tariff rate staying in place, down from the 30% he previously threatened.

Meanwhile, appellate court judges expressed skepticism over the president's legal rationale for using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose his most expansive round of tariffs without congressional approval.

GAZA: The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war climbed to more than 60,000, Gaza's Health Ministry said Tuesday.

JUDGE CONFIRMED: The Senate voted 50-49 Tuesday to confirm President Donald Trump's former lawyer Emil Bove for a lifetime appointment as a federal appeals court judge, despite Democratic attempts to stop the nomination and whistleblower complaints against Bove.

QUAKE: A tsunami hit parts of Russia, Japan, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off Russia's far east early Wednesday. It was one of the biggest quakes ever recorded. Several people were injured, but none gravely; no major damage was reported.

— Associated Press

BIG NUMBER

$30,000

The amount awarded to French swimmer Léon Marchand for breaking American Ryan Lochte's 2011 world record Wednesday in the 200-meter individual medley at the world swimming championships in Singapore at 1 minute, 52.69 seconds.

SHE SAID …

For now, my leadership — and public service — will not be in elected office."

— Former Vice President Kamala Harris, announcing Thursday that she will not run for governor of California in 2026; she has not ruled out another run for president. The Water cooler

SAFETY NET: Wednesday was the 60th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson signing legislation that launched Medicaid, creating a U.S. health care safety net for millions of low-income Americans. A day earlier in 1964, Johnson did the same for food stamps. The anniversaries came after Republicans passed a law that is expected to reduce beneficiaries of both programs.

FITNESS: President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to reestablish the Presidential Fitness Test for U.S. schoolchildren. The program created in 1966 had children prove they could run and perform situps and pullups or pushups, among other athletic feats. It was changed in 2012 to focus on individuals' health.

ESPN: Hall of Fame tight end-turned-broadcaster Shannon Sharpe will not return to ESPN, a person with knowledge of the decision said Wednesday on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced. It came less than two weeks after Sharpe resolved a lawsuit that accused him of sexually assaulting a woman during their relationship.

GRATEFUL DEAD: Tens of thousands of Deadheads poured into San Francisco for three days of Dead & Company concerts, starting Friday, in honor of the Grateful Dead's 60th anniversary. San Francisco planned a long weekend of events, including renaming a street for city native and guitarist Jerry Garcia, who died in 1995.