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In the news today: After months of criticizing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, President Donald Trump took the fight to the Fed's front door on Thursday; federal regulators approve Paramount's $8 billion deal with Skydance; and French President Macron says France will recognize Palestine as a state. Also, changing tides and shifting sands have revealed ancient petroglyphs on a Hawaii beach. A typo in Thursday's Morning Wire incorrectly said she instead of he in this headline: Bondi facing Democratic calls to testify following report she told Trump he was in Epstein files. |
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reviews a document of cost figures as President Donald Trump watches during a visit to the Federal Reserve on Thursday in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
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Trump and Powell bicker over Fed building renovations as president ratchets up pressure campaign
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After months of criticizing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, President Donald Trump took the fight to the Fed's front door Thursday, publicly scorning the central bank chief over the ballooning costs of a long-planned building project. Powell pushed back, challenging the president's latest price tag as incorrect. Read more. |
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- Wearing hard hats and grim faces, standing in the middle of the construction project, Trump and Powell addressed the assembled TV cameras. Trump charged that the renovation would cost $3.1 billion, much higher than the Fed's $2.5 billion figure. Powell, standing next to him, shook his head. The Fed chair, after looking at a paper presented to him by Trump, said the president was including the cost of renovating a separate Fed building, known as the Martin building, that was finished five years ago.
The visit represented a significant ratcheting up of the president's pressure on Powell to lower borrowing costs, which Trump says would accelerate economic growth and reduce the government's interest payments. Presidents rarely visit the Fed's offices, though they are just a few blocks from the White House, an example of the central bank's independence from day-to-day politics. Trump is likely to be disappointed next week, however, when Fed officials will meet to decide its next steps on interest rates.
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Federal regulators approve Paramount's $8 billion deal with Skydance, capping months of turmoil
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Federal regulators on Thursday approved Paramount's $8 billion merger with Skydance, clearing the way to close a deal combining Hollywood glitz with political intrigue. The stamp of approval from the Federal Communications Commission comes after months of turmoil revolving around Trump's legal battle with "60 Minutes," the crown jewel of Paramount-owned broadcast network CBS. Read more. |
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Critics of the settlement lambasted it as a veiled bribe to appease Trump as concerns rise over editorial independence. Further outrage emerged after CBS said it was canceling Stephen Colbert's "Late Show" just days after the comedian sharply criticized the parent company's settlement on air. Paramount cited financial reasons, but big names both within and outside the company have questioned those motives.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr hailed the merger as an opportunity to bring more balance to "once-storied" CBS. "Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change," Carr said in a statement accompanying the deal's approval.
- The FCC approved the merger by a 2-1 vote. The regulator who cast the opposing vote expressed disdain for how the deal came together. "After months of cowardly capitulation to this administration, Paramount finally got what it wanted," FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said. "Unfortunately, it is the American public who will ultimately pay the price for its actions." Gomez was appointed by former President Joe Biden.
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French President Macron says France will recognize Palestine as a state
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President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France will recognize Palestine as a state in a bold diplomatic move as global anger snowballs over conditions in Gaza that observers say are starving many residents. Israel denounced the decision. Macron said in a post on X that he will formalize the decision at the U.N. General Assembly in September. Read more. |
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The mostly symbolic move puts added diplomatic pressure on Israel as the war and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip continue. France is now the biggest Western power to recognize Palestine. More than 140 countries recognize a Palestinian state, including more than a dozen in Europe.
Israel's government and most of its political class have long been opposed to Palestinian statehood and now say it would reward militants after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack. "We strongly condemn President Macron's decision," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became. A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel – not to live in peace beside it.'' The United States "strongly rejects" Macron's plan to recognize a Palestinian state, Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in a post on the social platform X.
- With Europe's largest Jewish population and the largest Muslim population in western Europe, France repeatedly has seen fighting in the Middle East spill over into protests or other tensions at home. The French president offered support for Israel after the Oct. 7 attacks and frequently speaks out against antisemitism, but he has grown increasingly frustrated about Israel's war in Gaza.
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Participants of The Gallops' 2025 near the alpine Song-Kol Lake, Kyrgyzstan on Monday. (AP Photo/Vladimir Voronin)
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Photos show an epic endurance race celebrating the bond between people and horses in Kyrgyzstan
For equestrian riders, the endurance race known as the Gallops is the ultimate test of stamina and self-discipline. First hosted in India in 2019, the event challenges teams of international riders to a five-day trek spanning more than 125 miles (201 kilometers) as part of a race inspired by the famous Paris-Dakar rally. |
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