The Fed Cuts Rates & The FCC Silences Kimmel

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Hi readers, happy Thursday! Today we’re covering the Fed’s rate cut, the FCC silencing Jimmy Kimmel, Bolsonaro’s health problems, more Gaza updates, the looming government shutdown, a vaccine showdown, and the end of Ben & Jerry’s.

“When you are led by values, it doesn't cost your business, it helps your business.” — Jerry Greenfield

The Rate Cut We’ve Been Waiting For

After nine months of waiting, the Federal Reserve announced its first interest rate cut of the year. The quarter-percent cut, which lowers the central bank’s interest rate to the 4%-4.25% range, will hopefully make borrowing easier for businesses and consumers, bringing spending up across the board.

The Fed was holding off on the rate cut all year despite pressure from Trump over concerns about inflation. Despite those concerns, the bank was pushed to make the cut in the face of extremely weak job numbers – in August, the U.S. added just 22,000 jobs, and the economy actually lost jobs in June. In total, employers made just 598,000 hires so far this year, compared to the 1.4 million they made in the first eight months of 2024.

“After weak July and August employment reports and a large negative preliminary benchmark revision, job growth now appears to be much lower and below the breakeven rate, the risks still tilt toward further negative revisions, the unemployment rate has risen slightly for two months in a row, and our broader measure of labor market slack has risen a bit more,” wrote Goldman Sachs economists in a report. Earlier this month, the CEO of McDonald’s said that the U.S. is a “two-tier economy” at the moment, with upper-income households spending as they like while “middle- and lower-income consumers, they’re feeling under a lot of pressure right now.”

The Kirk Crashouts Continue

Utah state prosecutors are apparently seeking the death penalty for Tyler Robinson, the 22 year-old accused of shooting right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk last week. Robinson appeared in an online court hearing on Tuesday, where Utah County District Attorney Jeffrey Gray charged him with seven criminal counts, including aggravated murder, obstruction of justice for disposing of evidence, and witness tampering. Gray, a registered Republican, said he chose to seek the death penalty “independently, based solely on the available evidence and circumstances and nature of the crime.”  

Meanwhile, the federal government continues to crack down on free speech in the aftermath of Kirk’s death. On Wednesday, the head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) threatened to pull the broadcast licence of ABC in response to comments made by Jimmy Kimmel. ABC quickly responded to the threat by saying that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would be pulled off the air indefinitely. “The MAGA Gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said on Monday. 

On a right-wing podcast yesterday, FCC Chair Brendan Carr called that statement “truly sick.” He threatened that ABC (and its parent company Disney) must “find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead,” adding, “They have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest.” Nexstar Media Group, which owns TV stations across the U.S., joined in on the action by saying it would “preempt ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show.” Why? The media giant is seeking FCC approval for its multibillion-dollar merger with Tegna, another media conglomerate.

Don’t Coup; It’s Bad For You

• Last Thursday, Brazil’s Supreme Court sentenced former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison for his role in a 2022 coup attempt. The far-right politician, who lost the 2022 presidential elections to leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was convicted on five charges: taking part in an armed criminal organization, attempting to violently abolish democracy, organizing a coup, and damaging government property and protected cultural assets.

• The possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison seems to have taken its toll on Bolsonaro’s health. On Sunday, the former president went to a local hospital to have eight skin lesions tested by doctors. Then on Tuesday, Bolsonaro’s son announced that his father was taken to a hospital in Brasilia after experiencing severe hiccups, vomiting, and low blood pressure – after receiving treatment, he was released on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Bolsonaro’s allies are preparing for a long legal battle as they look to appeal the Supreme Court’s decision, and he’s apparently planning to run in Brazil’s 2026 presidential election. Are the hospital visits a bid for sympathy? Or maybe he wanted to prepare for his diet in prison by eating hospital food…

New Lows In The Levant

• According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the death toll in Israel’s war in Gaza has reached 65,000. That count excludes deaths from “preventable disease, malnutrition and other consequences of the war,” and according to the Lancet – one of the most reputable peer-reviewed medical journals in the world – the actual death toll in Gaza should be roughly 40% higher than the health ministry’s published numbers. The new milestone comes as the IDF continues its Gaza City offensive, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee the area or risk death. Across the larger Gaza Strip, the IDF killed at least 63 people, including 13 attempting to leave Gaza City.

• On Tuesday, a U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) published yet another report on the war in Gaza. The commission found that Israel has committed four acts of genocide in the conflict, including killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing them “serious bodily and mental harm,” “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” and “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”

• IDF soldiers, according to the report, “shot at and killed civilians” using dedicated evacuation routes – “some of whom (including children) were holding makeshift white flags. Some children, including toddlers, were shot in the head by snipers.” 

Additional World News

• U.K. Offers Trump a Royal Welcome of Maximum Pomp and Minimum Politics (NYT, $)

• What is new in UK-US tech deal and what will it mean for the British economy? (Guardian)

• Syria's worst drought in decades pushes millions to the brink (BBC)

• Flying cars crash into each other at Chinese air show (BBC) 

• Trump to return to the United Nations as Gaza, Ukraine conflicts rage (Reuters)

• Saudi Arabia signs mutual defense pact with nuclear-armed Pakistan after Israel attacks Qatar (AP)

Time For Congress To Actually Work

• The hint of a chill in the air might have you thinking about pumpkin spice lattes and Christmas trees, but members of Congress are focused on something else. That’s right, it’s government shutdown season, meaning the federal government only has the money to keep running until September 30. On Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers put forth a temporary spending package that would keep it funded until October 31… and also over $1 trillion for Medicaid and other health programs.

• The spending proposal – less of a good-faith budget and more of a way to establish a strong bargaining position – would permanently extend Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire this year, reverse cuts to Medicaid and other federal health programs, and revoke the White House’s ability to take back spending that’s already been approved by Congress. “The contrast between the Republican proposal and what Democrats have put forward is glaring,” said Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer. “Republicans want the same old status quo of rising costs and declining health care. Democrats are fighting back with a real plan that addresses the needs of the American people.”

Coming To Blows Over Jabs

• Yesterday, California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii – which make up the West Coast Health Alliance – published their own vaccine recommendations. The guidelines are a direct response to the CDC’s shift away from vaccine recommendations under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is a vocal anti-vaxxer, seems to pick up every animal carcass he finds, and has also had a dead worm found in his brain. 

• Back to the vaccine recommendations, the West Coast Health Alliance recommended that: everyone over 6 months old should receive a flu vaccine this year, most of the population (including pregnant women and children 6 months to 2 years old) should get a Covid-19 booster, and infants under 8 months and adults over 75 should get the RSV vaccine. Meanwhile, the CDC has stopped recommending that pregnant women get the Covid-19 jab, and says that healthy children should only receive it with a doctor’s recommendation. 

• Meanwhile, former CDC director Susan Monarez testified before the Senate yesterday. Monarez told lawmakers that she was fired by RFK Jr. just two months after being sworn in because she’d refused to rubber-stamp every vaccine recommendation pushed by her boss. “He also directed me to dismiss career officials responsible for vaccine policy without cause. He said if I was unwilling to do both, I should resign,” she added.

Additional USA News

• Trump asks the Supreme Court to give him total control over the US economy (Vox)

• Bernie Sanders becomes first US senator to say Israel committing genocide in Gaza (Guardian)

• Sonia Sotomayor says Americans may not know difference between presidents and kings (Guardian)

• Fed's rate cut comes with caveats, leaving investors lukewarm (Reuters)

• Prosecutors already have dropped nearly a dozen cases from Trump's DC crime surge, judge says (AP)

• U.S. Education Dept. unites conservative groups to create 'patriotic' civics content (NPR) 

The Scoop On The Ben & Jerry’s

• It’s all Ben and no Jerry from now on. Yesterday, Jerry Greenfield, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, announced that he would be leaving the Vermont-based ice cream company due to a clash over political messaging with Unilever, its parent company. “It’s with a broken heart that I’ve decided I can no longer, in good conscience, and after 47 years, remain an employee of Ben & Jerry’s,” Greenfield wrote in a resignation letter. “Ben & Jerry’s has been silenced, sidelined for fear of upsetting those in power,” he added.

• The ice cream brand is well known for its interesting flavor combinations and silly names, including Cherry Garcia, Phish Food, and The Tonight Dough. Besides that, Ben & Jerry’s is also known for being vocal about social issues — “It was always about more than just ice cream; it was a way to spread love and invite others into the fight for equity, justice and a better world,” Greenfield wrote in his letter. When the pair sold their company to Unilever for $326 million in 2000, the conglomerate said it would only take over operating the ice cream brand while letting an independent board control political and social messaging. Ben and Jerry have launched a “Free Ben & Jerry's” campaign over those differences, asking Unilever to sell the company to a different owner which will allow them to keep the brand’s social platform intact.

Additional Reads

• Aspirin can have ‘huge effect’ in stopping colorectal cancer returning, study finds (Guardian)

• Jerry quits Ben & Jerry's, saying its independence on social issues has been stifled (AP)

• AI challenges the dominance of Google search (BBC) 

• The four 'humours': Our 2,500-year-old mania for personality types (BBC) 

• Inside the Very Expensive, Extremely Overwhelming, Engineered Fun of Theme Parks (Atlantic) 

• I regret to inform you Meta’s new smart glasses are the best I’ve ever tried (Verge)

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