The Federal Reserve, under new Chairman Kevin Warsh, voted unanimously to keep its rate target at 3.50% to 3.75%, declining to cut even as consumer prices climbed 4.2% over the year ending in May — the hottest reading since April 2023. The Fed blamed higher energy costs tied to the Iran conflict but pledged it "will deliver price stability." Officials now project inflation running 3.6% by year's end, up sharply from their March forecast.
President Trump argued gas prices should be at $2.25 a gallon and accused major U.S. oil companies of dragging their feet on lowering prices following his memorandum of understanding with Iran. The pressure campaign comes as he tours manufacturing sites, including a recent stop at a Mack Trucks plant in Pennsylvania, to sell his economic record ahead of the November midterms. Polling shows him underwater on the economy, with a majority of voters disapproving of his handling of the issue.
Republicans are coalescing around an anti-socialist, tax-focused midterm strategy after socialist candidates backed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani swept their June 23 primaries. Strategists frame the cycle as "two steps forward, one step back," with the party eyeing flip opportunities like Georgia's Senate race even as economic headwinds weigh on the president's numbers. The pivot back to taxes follows the Iran ceasefire dominating recent headlines.
The president welcomed American farmers to a Rose Garden dinner Thursday, pitching Iran as a potential new export market for U.S. wheat, soybeans and corn. Trump said the administration would steer Iranian money toward American agricultural goods, tying his foreign-policy dealmaking directly to the farm economy. The event doubled as a midterm-season show of support for rural voters.
U.S. officials say an Iranian drone struck a Singapore-flagged cargo ship leaving the Strait of Hormuz, rattling the newly negotiated U.S.-Iran roadmap. Trump warned the U.S. is dealing with Tehran "from a position of pure strength," insisting the Strait stays open and Iran will never get a nuclear weapon. The attack landed as both sides work through a 60-day framework on nuclear inspections, sanctions and security.
As the ship strike unfolded, Gulf states pressed for any Iran agreement to address far more than the Strait of Hormuz and nuclear weapons, citing regional proxy threats. Meanwhile, a fragile Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire is straining, with Israeli and Lebanese officials entering a fourth day of talks in Washington. Tehran has credited Swiss-brokered diplomacy with averting wider bloodshed in Lebanon.
Ukraine unleashed a reported 660 drones overnight, one of its biggest barrages of the war, striking the Moscow Oil Refinery in the capital's Kapotnya district and targets deep inside Russia and Crimea. The campaign aims to choke Russian fuel supplies and pressure the Kremlin, part of a broader Ukrainian effort to push Moscow toward ending the war. Russia's Defense Ministry claimed it intercepted more than 550 of the drones.
Waymo issued a recall covering 3,871 of its self-driving vehicles after software flaws let robotaxis drive into closed freeway construction zones in Phoenix and San Francisco. The company documented 13 separate incidents, including cases where cars drove between cones into active work lanes at speed. Waymo has restricted freeway operations while it deploys a fix.
Researchers have launched a clinical trial using gene therapy to reprogram cells to behave "younger" in a bid to reverse age-related vision loss. The approach is part of a fast-growing field of longevity science aimed at treating, rather than merely managing, the effects of aging. If successful, scientists believe the technique could point toward broader applications beyond the eye.
Newly declassified Pentagon files detail an October 2023 incident in which five federal law enforcement agents in the western U.S. watched an orange "mother orb" appear to hatch smaller red orbs in the sky. The case, signed by the Pentagon's anomaly office, remains officially unresolved, with "unrecognized technology" listed among possible explanations. It's part of a sweeping government push to release UAP records to the public.
