Extra, Extra
Numbers Don’t Lie: Trump railed against the Fed for years for not cutting rates. Now, his handpicked Chair Kevin Warsh is “laying the groundwork for a possible interest rate hike in the coming months.” At issue is America’s stubborn inflation. One sign things are getting too expensive: dollar stores are killing it. WSJ (Gift Article): Dollar General Is Winning Over Inflation-Weary Shoppers With $1 Items.
+ Reality Checks and Balances: “John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, made a secretive visit to Moscow this week to privately share his bleak assessment of the state of the Russian war against Ukraine, and to urge the Russians to cut a deal before their military and economic situation gets worse.” American intel leaders are concerned Putin isn’t getting a real picture of how bad things are going in his war. Sound familiar?
+ Downstream Disaster: “Rescue teams have reported finding bodies hundreds of miles downstream from the disaster zone in the Chitwan district of Nepal, near the Tibetan border.” And the number of those reported missing is going up. Here’s the latest from The Guardian.
+ Unions are Jacked: Not everyone is against building a lot of new data centers. For example, the people who build them. Blue-Collar Jobs Are the New Flashpoint in Data-Center Fight.
+ Straining at a Nat: “Those three words—travel with Natalie—sent MAGA world into paroxysms of rage that have yet to subside.” Peter Wehner has a very insightful take as to why. The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Wrath of MAGA.
+ E-Gads: In many professional sports, success or failure comes down to injuries. You probably didn’t imagine that includes e-sports. Professional gaming is brutal on the body. (The same is true for news curators. Both my palm and my forehead are constantly getting injured.)
+ Starbucks 54: “‘Any time I had to use it, I had to hold my breath,’ she said. Her colleagues complained about coughs and tickling throats. Baristas around the country reported developing hives and having asthma attacks.” Starbucks Drops Drink Powder That Enveloped Baristas in Clouds of Dust. (I hear this stuff was pretty popular at discos in the 80s.)
