Good morning. Fed chair contender Christopher Waller doubles down on the need for rate cuts. Dell fuels fresh doubts about the AI boom. And one scientist goes to the extreme to test how humans will endure a hotter world. Listen to the day’s top stories.
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Easy does it. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said he’d back a quarter-point rate cut at September’s meeting and more easing over the next three to six months. Further clues on the rate path are expected in today’s inflation data, which may show the central bank’s preferred gauge of price pressures rose in July at the fastest pace in five months. A dissenter at the last meeting, Waller has pressed for looser policy to support jobs—and is seen as a potential candidate to succeed Jerome Powell as Fed chair.
The Trump administration’s campaign against Fed Governor Lisa Cook intensified after FHFA Director Bill Pulte filed a new criminal referral alleging mortgage fraud. She’ll seek an emergency hearing this morning to block her removal. Cook has signaled an unintentional “clerical error” may have been behind the dispute. Read more on the potential fallout from Trump’s unprecedented attacks on the Fed in our Big Take below.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s closest alliesmay find little reassurance at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, which kicks off Sunday. He’s expected to focus on the bloc’s future as Donald Trump tries to hem in Beijing’s ambitions and generally upends US relationships. Meanwhile, Brazil isn’t taking Trump’s trade war lying down as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva prepares retaliation. Japan is taking the opposite tack; its top trade negotiator plans at least one more US visit before tariffs are finalized.
Play Pointed, the news quiz for risk-takers: Which “gym teacher” has a new partnership with American Eagle? Test your knowledge.
Deep Dive: Feeling the Heat
A participant during a heat stress trial inside a climate chamber at the University of Sydney. Photographer: Mridula Amin/Bloomberg
Scientist Glen Kenny spent three days in a chamber heated to 104F (40C) to study heat stress—research that’s reshaping how governments and companies respond to a hotter world.
The 61-year-old tested his own body against the kind of brutal indoor temperatures seen during a 2021 Canadian heat wave that killed hundreds. He felt fine the first day, but on the second his internal temperature approached dangerous levels. By day three, he’d shed about 10 pounds.
The findings are helping rewrite public health standards and guide firms from Adidas to United Airlines in protecting workers and reducing losses.
The grand atrium of the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, DC. Photographer: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Donald Trump’s fight with the Federal Reserve entered uncharted territory this week. Whoever wins, the damage to an institution at the heart of the US economy—and the world’s financial markets—will be hard to undo.
Opinion
Countries may be able to pursue regulation that encourage more bond buying to keep rates low, Allison Schrager writes. But it’s a risky financial strategy that could lead to lower returns if the US gives it a go.
Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Photographer: Julian Finney/Getty Images
Skipping the line. Tennis’s two-decade “Big Three” era of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic is over. Now, with carbon-fiber racquets, polyester strings and prodigious talent, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have bypassed their peers to take over the sport.
