NPR News: 07-29-2026 10PM EDT
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton.
Why has Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination stalled in the Senate?
Todd Blanche's nomination to become attorney general has stalled. Key Republicans have demanded more assurances about the settlement that gave President Trump and members of his family protection from tax audits. The Senate Judiciary Committee had been scheduled to vote tomorrow to advance Blanche's nomination to the floor, but it's been delayed. but Republican Senators John Cornyn and Tom Tellis have threatened to withhold their support. Stocks fell today after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady. NPR's Scott Horsley reports all of the major stock indexes tumbled more than 1.5%.
The Federal Reserve's rate-setting committee voted 9-3 to leave the central bank's benchmark interest rate unchanged. The three dissenters said they would have preferred a quarter-point rate increase in an effort to curb stubborn inflation. Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh notes that market-based interest rates are already climbing, even though the Fed's benchmark hasn't changed. That's encouraging for Warsh, who wants the Fed to play a smaller role in the U.S. economy.
After all, the central bank need not always and everywhere be the center of attention.
With inflation still elevated and the war with Iran still rattling energy markets, investors see a better than even chance that the Fed will raise interest rates at its next policy meeting in September. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.
The U.S. military says it's launching strikes on Iranian targets a day after it thwarted a missile attack on American forces in Jordan. NPR's Jane Araf says the escalation comes after a lull in fighting.
The U.S. and Iran paused those attacks to give diplomacy a chance, meaning messages were being exchanged through mediators. But early Wednesday, which is Tuesday evening U.S. time, Iran fired ballistic missiles at U.S. military installations on Jordanian bases. One of them, Iran said, was a military command and control center. So CENTCOM, the U.S. military, said this was a surprise attack. And President Trump told Fox News, in words we frankly cannot repeat on air, that the U.S.
How did the Federal Reserve decision and market reaction drive stocks lower today?
would give Iran a beating.
NPR's Jane Araf reporting, the Trump administration is ending subsidies for Medicare drug plans. NPR's Sydney Lubkin reports some seniors will face higher premiums.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare started capping patients' out-of-pocket drug spending at $2,000 last year. That change, and others that changed how plans would pay for drugs, meant insurers were on the hook for more money. At first, they didn't know how much more they'd be spending or how high to set premiums. To ease the transition for insurers, the Biden administration created temporary subsidies to stabilize premiums. The subsidies were expected to last three years, but are ending a year early, at the end of 2026. Dr. Mehmet Oz, who oversees the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, said on the social media platform X that it's because the subsidies are no longer needed. But the change means beneficiaries could be paying higher monthly premiums next year.
Sydney Lepkin, NPR News.
It's NPR. Elon Musk's social media company X has launched X Money, a bank account-like service for users to send money to each other. Musk aims to turn X into an everything app, entering a market dominated by services like Venmo and Cash App. Meta's share price slumped in after-hours trading after the company reported weaker-than-expected profits. As NPR's John Ruich reports, the social media giant's revenue hit a record, but AI spending spooked investors.
Seen one way, Meta had a pretty good quarter. Its revenue rose 28% year on year to a record $60.8 billion, and it turned a multi-billion dollar profit. But its spending on artificial intelligence is growing quickly, and that's making investors nervous. The company's costs and expenses were up 55% during the quarter, and it raised the bottom end of an expected range for capital expenditures, or CapEx, this year. That's an indicator of how much it expects to spend building AI data centers.
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