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Today's top stories
The Federal Reserve unanimously voted to raise interest rates yesterday for the first time in more than three years, increasing the benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point to a range of 3.75% to 4%. The hike makes it more expensive to borrow money, grow a business or carry a credit card balance. Inflation has risen amid the war in Iran, driving up the price of gasoline and diesel fuel. While higher interest rates won't immediately lower prices, they demonstrate the Fed's commitment to restoring price stability, despite repeated pressure from President Trump to lower interest rates.
- 🎧 Trump's demands for lower rates came up frequently during Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's press conference yesterday, NPR's Alina Selyukh tells Up First. Like his predecessor, Jerome Powell, Warsh didn't engage and reiterated the Fed's independence. Selyukh says the Fed faces the challenge of slowing the economy without tipping the country into a recession. The Fed does not control key drivers of inflation, such as tariff policies, nor does it control wages, which have been stagnant for months. Selyukh says workers' paychecks have been losing buying power, and Warsh hopes stable prices will help families cope with inflation.
Rising gas prices have sparked protests around the world, including in Syria, the Philippines and Indonesia. The price surge comes as Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, faces a renewed war in Yemen against the Iranian-backed Houthis.
- 🎧 NPR's Aya Batrawy says the escalation in fighting has challenged energy supplies. Last month, Saudi Arabia's oil output fell to around 6.2 million barrels a day — down from 11 million before the war in Iran began. There's also a large human toll: The fighting this month between the Houthis and Saudi-backed groups has displaced more than 100,000 people, according to the U.N. Trump remains focused on the U.S. conflict with Iran and so far shows no intention of striking the Houthis, as the U.S. did last year. A Saudi official, speaking anonymously in order to discuss security matters, confirmed to NPR a recent meeting between U.S. officials and the Houthis in Oman.
The European Union has proposed making Canada its first-ever "associate member." European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the proposal for the new model of membership during her annual speech to the EU Parliament in Strasbourg, France. In his own address to the EU Parliament this morning, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney emphasized how much the EU and Canada have in common and said that "Europe and Canada are stronger together."
- 🎧 Canada and the EU have felt bullied by the Trump administration over tariffs, threats to abandon NATO and proposals to take over Greenland or make Canada the 51st state, NPR's Eleanor Beardsley says. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said this morning that he welcomes working more closely with Canada, but would need to see what being an associate member means. Beardsley says many probably view Canada's potential EU membership as mostly symbolic. When asked about it yesterday, Trump said the concept is laughable and could be seen as a hostile move.
Deep dive
A bill championed by crypto executives and President Trump failed to pass a Senate vote this week. The Clarity Act would have established the first regulations for the crypto sector in U.S. history. A version of the bill passed the House last year. Now, the bill's future is uncertain as the crypto industry and its backers must weigh their options for another attempt. Here are some key things to know about the Clarity Act:
- 🪙 The act aimed to formally divide crypto oversight between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, but more control would be given to the smaller regulator, CFTC.
- 🪙 Critics argue that granting the CFTC the bulk of the control allows the crypto sector to evade heavy regulatory scrutiny. Industry executives deny the accusation.
- 🪙 A key sticking point for some Democratic opponents is the concern that the ethics clause intended to prevent presidents and elected officials from profiting from the crypto industry while in office fails to adequately prevent conflicts of interest.
- 🪙 The bill isn't dead yet, but it is likely to face a tough time passing this year with midterms approaching. If Democrats control the House or Senate after the elections, passing the bill could become even more challenging.
Behind the story
by Chiara Eisner, Investigative Correspondent
For decades, NASA's Goddard facility in Maryland has been famous for one thing: engineering spacecraft that try to answer big questions. Questions like: Are we alone? How many other planets might be able to support life? Why is the universe expanding?
It takes billions of dollars, custom-built rooms and teams of experienced engineers to make the telescopes and satellites that can shed some light on those questions. But last year, NASA's management started forcing engineers out of those specialized labs. In some cases, NASA leaders gave them less than a week to pack up their devices and designate what equipment they would have to lose in order to fit into the smaller spaces they were told to move to. Other times, sources told me, the teams' equipment was moved — and even donated to other institutions — without the scientists' knowledge.
After lawmakers asked the government's independent watchdog office overseeing NASA to investigate the impact of those moves, the agency in June found that those relocations hadn't hurt ongoing projects and would "not impact NASA's anticipated missions."
But I spoke with seven current and former NASA scientists and engineers at Goddard who said that wasn't true. Some of NASA's most ambitious projects, like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launched in August, were affected, NPR found.
Experts told me that it signals danger for NASA's future.
"That only adds a whole lot of risk to an already risky endeavor," said Jack Kiraly, chief of advocacy at The Planetary Society, a nonprofit that champions space science and exploration. "These are potentially billions of dollars worth of taxpayer investment. We don't do ourselves any favors by putting the people that make this happen in precarious situations."
3 things to know before you go
- Researchers have developed a new way to implant lab-grown human brain cells into mice, helping them to better research complex neurological diseases. But as the technology grows more complex, so do the questions surrounding the ethics of this process.
- Author Annie Dillard, who wrote several books including 1974's Pulitzer Prize-winning Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, has died at age 81.
- When Tracy Zito's young son got caught in a current in Lake Michigan, she feared the worst as she struggled to pull him back to shore. An unsung hero suddenly appeared beside her and brought her son to safety. More than 15 years later, Zito still feels tears in her eyes when she recalls this courageous act.
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
Copyright 2026 NPR
