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Good evening. Here’s the last one at the end of Wednesday.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after he abruptly raised hopes for such a deal this summer. It was not clear what had changed his mind about the plan.
In other news from Washington, the Senate has passed a $280 billion bill focused on building American production and technology sectors to counter China. The legislation, which represents the most significant government intervention in industrial policy in decades, is expected to get another vote in the House this week before going to President Biden’s desk.
Individual, Biden tested negative for coronavirushis doctor said, ending his five-day isolation.
2. The Federal Reserve continues its aggressive campaign to curb inflation.
the central bank increased interest rate by three quarters of a percentage pointthe fourth hike this year, setting the key rate at a range of 2.25 to 2.5 percent and adding in a statement that it “anticipates continued increases in the target range will be appropriate.”
“We’re not trying to get into a recession, and we don’t think we need to,” said Fed chairman Jerome Powell, adding that the labor market is likely to weaken somewhat. “The risk of doing too little and leaving the economy with this entrenched inflation only increases costs.”
Consumer prices rose by 9.1 percent in the period to June. This is how rate increases work as America’s primary tool for lowering prices and what they mean for mortgages and credit cards.
3. The US has offered Russia a deal for the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and a former Marine, Paul Whelan.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US “put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago” to get their release and had “communicated repeatedly and directly about that proposal.” He said he expected to speak with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about the matter soon.
A person briefed on the negotiations said the US had offered to trade in June and imprisoned Russian arms dealer, Viktor Boutfor Griner and Whelan, and that President Biden had supported the offer. Whelan was convicted last year of espionage.
Blinken’s comments came on the same day that Griner, who has been detained in Russia since February on drug charges, told a court that she had been thrown into a mind-boggling legal system with little explanation of what happened.
4. The Justice Department is said to have asked for witnesses about former President Donald Trump in the Jan. 6 survey.
federal prosecutors wanted information about the role Trump and members of his inner circle played in the efforts to nullify the election, suggesting the investigation was accelerating into a more aggressive and politically charged phase. The Justice Department has been largely silent about how and even whether it would weigh up against prosecuting possible charges against the former president.
5. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, reported its first drop in sales since it went public a decade ago.
Meta’s second quarter revenue was $28.15 billion, down from $29.07 billion a year earlier. Earnings were $6.69 billion, down 36 percent from a year earlier. The latest figures came on the same day that the Federal Trade Commission filed a ban on Meta. to block from buying Within, a virtual reality company, limiting the company’s pressure in the so-called metaverse.
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, is pushing his company through a relentless transformation as competitors like TikTok to wear.
Related: Default settings buried in products from Apple, Google, Meta, and others make us share more data than we need to. This is what you should turn off right away.
6. An attempt in Indiana to ban abortion with exceptions has exposed cracks among conservatives in a post-Roe world.
Unlike lawmakers who passed trigger bans related to the overthrow of Roe v. Wade, Republicans weighing the issue today are not ruling in hypothetical considerations, and many seem to be bidding their time.
Indiana’s bill narrowly passed the committee. Senator Ed Charbonneau, who was among the yes votes, said, “I think my wish is that we make a bad bill less bad.” Senator Eric Bassler, who also voted yes, said that “there are many reasons not to support this bill on many different levels.”
7. A Conservation Plan in Yosemite National Park calls for discussion on the management of forests in the age of climate change.
With relentless drought and fire seasons, experts have described state forests as injured and extremely vulnerable, and they have increasingly taken the stance that to save trees, you have to cut trees. A plan to thin out less than 1 percent of Yosemite’s forests is now stuck in court after an environmental group claimed the park failed to properly assess the effects.
And in the Caribbean another kind of debate around climate change is heating up. Caribbean countries are often caught between the global financial system and the looming climate catastrophe. Barbados is fighting to find a way out.
8. Native athletes are reclaiming lacrosse.
Players for the Haudenosaunee (formerly called the Iroquois) represent the six nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, some of the historic founders of lacrosse, and the lacrosse teams of the Haudenosaunee Nationals fight for official recognition in global sport.
Their main goal is to compete in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where the sport could return to the medal program after more than a century.
“Western society keeps trying to push us back down and erase us from the history books,” said one men’s team player, “but with our flag showing with every other country, we’re still here and we’re still fighting.” still. “
9. An upbeat lead single. An album title and release date. A new social media account (hello, TikTok). Is Beyoncé’s latest album… conventional?
For most musicians, these are time-honored tasks of introducing an important new album. But for Beyoncé, who spent more than a decade trying to overthrow all conventions about marketing music, the roll-out of “Renaissance” is a striking shift — and perhaps a tacit admission that the game has changed.
Joni Mitchell also makes waves. The singer-songwriter surprisingly returned to the stage this weekend, her first performance since she suffered a brain haemorrhage in 2015. Mitchell had to relearn how to sing and play the guitar, and she did just that “triumphantly” at the Newport Folk Festival in what our critic calls an act of courage, joy and reinterpretation.
10. And finally, The world’s largest hornet gets a new name.
You may remember it as the big, bad insect that earned the nickname “slayer hornet” for its threat to the Pacific Northwest in 2019. Its superlative — about an inch long — painful sting and violent tendencies led to a desperate attempt to kill the tiny eradicate the population before it was permanently established.
The hornet, native to parts of Asia, was also known as the “Asian giant hornet.” Now, in an effort to reduce negative and nationalistic associations, the Entomological Society of America introduced a new common name for the insect: Northern giant hornet.
Make it a busy night.
Jennifer Swanson has put together photos for this briefing.
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