Emma Tucker
1. FROM MY DESK
The Fed raised interest rates for the first time since 2023, sending stocks tumbling after the third meeting for Kevin Warsh.
A single quarter-point bump won't change Americans' bank balances overnight. But a steady stream of increases could make it more expensive to get a mortgage, auto loan or credit card.
Now that Warsh has made it clear inflation is still a problem, Wall Street is wondering how far the Fed will go to address it. As chief economics correspondent Nick Timiraos reports, traders are already pricing in a much longer fight.
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2. TODAY'S HEADLINES
-- Even as Trump dismisses calls for tighter federal regulation of the AI industry, the quiet freakout among some of his most senior aides has begun.
-- Iran's attempts to get around a U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz are hitting a wall.
-- ExxonMobil is close to signing a preliminary deal to explore investments in several Venezuelan oil fields, negotiating a potential return to the country nearly two decades after its exit.
-- The House passed legislation that gives Trump new authority to level tariffs and is intended to squeeze the biggest importers of Russian oil and gas.
-- Patriots owner Robert Kraft made it clear to Ed Sheeran that he would cancel his tour dates at Gillette Stadium unless Macklemore was dropped from the bill.
3. LIVE FROM THE MARKETS
Follow our live financial coverage all day.
-- Stocks Spencer Jakab is watching: Let's build something separately. Last June, Switzerland-based cement giant Holcim spun off shares of its fast-growing U.S. subsidiary, calling it Amrize. Unfortunately it barely rose, hitting a record low on Wednesday. The stock price is down 26% since it began trading. Holcim's is up by about the same amount in dollar terms. (Get Spencer's Markets A.M. newsletter in your inbox.)
-- Saudi Arabia has another option to get its oil out, writes Carol Ryan.
4. READ IT HERE FIRST
Meet the anonymous math geek who quit Anthropic-and became the face of AI safety.
Over the past week, a global reckoning about the risks of AI spread from the frontier labs of Silicon Valley to living rooms across America and the corridors of power in Washington and Beijing. AI researchers have issued dire warnings for years. But never before have they freaked out so many people so quickly. And it all started with a guy nobody had ever heard of. Until he publicly resigned from Anthropic and warned about the dangers of AI systems that could end humanity, Jacob Coxon was anonymous, report Amrith Ramkumar, Erin Woo, Berber Jin and Ben Cohen. The 27-year-old British researcher was a talented math student who went to Cambridge and spent his young adulthood in a London intellectual community known as the "rationalists." He barely had an online footprint.
5. REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK
A-hed editor Russell Adams: At the Journal, we have many smart people doing very serious work. Then there's me.
As editor of the A-hed, the offbeat story that's been a fixture since 1941, I specialize in triviality. If there isn't at least one "Slow news day?" in the reader comments, I've failed.
In truth, A-heds serve two important functions. They give readers a diversion from the daily drumbeat of news. And they provide our reporters an outlet to satisfy their personal and professional curiosity.
There's no formula but they tend to fall into a few categories. There's the low-stakes, high-drama genre, like the one about the Hamptons town rocked by a scandal over a $25 gift card. There are those about unusual obsessions, like the Ford executive who kept score of colleagues' verbal flubs, and odd jobs, like the hairy Utah men benefiting from a booming market for Jesus models.
A-heds explore new angles to viral trends, including how "6-7" is making life hell for math teachers. They draw on reporters' own experiences, like the one about a criminal enterprise run by monkeys. Sometimes they make you feel good-one of my favorites was about the NHL player living in a Connecticut family's basement.
These stories may not move markets, but they endure like nothing else we do. Here's to many more slow news days.
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6. SEE THE STORY
Here's how jet power is giving Russia the edge in the drone war.
The latest revolution in drone warfare is jet-powered. Russia's one-way attack drones-known as Gerans-are now equipped with turbojet engines. Relatively inexpensive to make, they are evading Ukrainian air defenses and striking their targets more quickly than their propeller-powered predecessors. Ukraine's low-cost, 3-D-printed Sting interceptors easily hunted older Geran-2 drones, but Russia's newer variants fly at much higher speeds, making them harder to chase down.
7. HAPPENING TODAY
-- The Commerce Department reports August housing starts.
-- The Bank of England is due to announce its interest-rate decision.
-- Today's paper
8. THE NUMBER
2.9 million
The projected shortage of managers U.S. businesses will face in 2032, according to Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce. It's by far the biggest anticipated shortage among major job categories. Middle managers are on the chopping block at (Uber), Intel, (Coinbase) and other companies. But layers of management help bigger bosses get stuff done, writes columnist Callum Borchers. Their loss will come back to bite companies sooner than they realize.
9. AND FINALLY...
The SpaceX IPO gave this couple license to chase their dreams.
Brian Aggrey worked at (SpaceX) for over a decade. After the company's record-breaking IPO in June, he and his wife, Phoebe Novack, saw their fortunes increase dramatically. So they quit their jobs and left the country. Now in Paris, they plan to fly to Mexico City this fall, where Aggrey will study sculpture and the country's water crisis. This is just the autumn itinerary for a wild year of letting themselves chase hobbies and passions. They have budgeted $25,000 a month for 365 days. The couple is calling it their "Year of Freak."
10. BEYOND THE NEWSROOM
-- Opinion: The Federal Open Market Committee announced it will raise interest rates a quarter point. Will Kevin Warsh's critics apologize for questioning the Fed Chair's independence from Trump?
-- WSJ | Buy Side: Our top debt-consolidation lenders can help you simplify repayment and potentially reduce your interest costs.
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Today's newsletter was curated and edited by Morgan Smith and Natasha Dangoor in collaboration with Editor in Chief Emma Tucker. Got a tip for us? Here's how to submit.
This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.