Headline News

Decision due amid concerns about political influence at independent central bank – with Trump aide sworn in as governor and Lisa Cook fighting removal

The US Federal Reserve is expected to announce the first interest rate cut since December as a two-day policy meeting nears its end.

The Fed started the meeting on Tuesday, hours after Donald Trump’s new appointee narrowly won confirmation to join the central bank – while Fed governor Lisa Cook continues to fight her removal by the president.

Dr Debra Houry and Susan Monarez say US unprepared to prevent chronic disease or fight next pandemic

• RFK Jr’s actions have greatly diminished US ability to respond to outbreaks, ousted CDC officials say

Donald Trump has claimed his administration has reached a deal with China to keep TikTok operating in the US, amid uncertainty over what shape the final agreement will take, with suggestions from the Chinese side that Beijing would retain control of the algorithm that powers the site’s video feed.

“We have a deal on TikTok ... We have a group of very big companies that want to buy it,” Trump said on Tuesday, without providing further details.

Xp Lee beats Republican Ruth Bittner for vacant seat after Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed in June

Democrat Xp Lee won a special election to fill the state house seat of the former Minnesota house speaker Melissa Hortman, who was killed in June alongside her husband in what officials described as a “politically motivated assassination”.

Lee, a health equity analyst, former Brooklyn Park city council member and a mentee of Hortman’s, triumphed over Republican Ruth Bittner, a real estate agent, in a heavily Democratic, suburban district. His victory restored a legislative tie in the state house, with each party controlling 67 seats.

Susan Monarez, director of Centers for Disease Control before she was fired in August, says US unprepared to prevent chronic disease or fight next pandemic

• RFK Jr’s actions have greatly diminished US ability to respond to outbreaks, ousted CDC officials say

Donald Trump has claimed his administration has reached a deal with China to keep TikTok operating in the US, amid uncertainty over what shape the final agreement will take, with suggestions from the Chinese side that Beijing would retain control of the algorithm that powers the site’s video feed.

“We have a deal on TikTok ... We have a group of very big companies that want to buy it,” Trump said on Tuesday, without providing further details.

The former president called recent attacks ‘horrific’ and urged leaders to lower the political temperature

Barack Obama addressed the recent killing of Charlie Kirk and told a crowd in Pennsylvania this week that the country is “at an inflection point”, but that political violence “is not new” and “has happened at certain periods” in US history.

Obama added that despite history, political violence is “anathema to what it means to be a democratic country”.

Erika McEntarfer says Americans should be concerned about independence of key economic institutions

The former chief US economics data statistics who Donald Trump fired last month called her sudden removal “dangerous” and said Americans should be concerned about the independence of key economic institutions.

“Markets have to trust the data are not manipulated,” said Erika McEntarfer, former head of the Bureau Labor of Statistics, on Tuesday in her first remarks since her firing. “Firing your chief statisticians for releasing data you do not like, it has serious economic consequences.”