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Today's top stories
The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates today for the first time in more than three years. Investors anticipate that the central bank will raise its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to a range of 3.75% to 4%. The move would result in higher borrowing costs for consumers looking to buy cars, expand businesses or carry credit card balances.
- 🎧 The central bank has two meetings left before the end of the year, making it possible that the Fed could raise rates more if inflation stays high, NPR's Scott Horsley tells Up First. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh will hold a news conference this afternoon to discuss today's decision in more detail, while other rate-setting committee members will share individual forecasts for future interest rates. These forecasts reflect each member's economic views but can shift in response to unexpected events such as war and tariffs.
There are 21.4 million women in the U.S. who need subsidized birth control living in counties with limited access, according to a new analysis shared exclusively with NPR from Power to Decide and the Guttmacher Institute. The two reproductive policy organizations' analysis produced two interactive, county-level maps that serve as updated versions of a map of contraception deserts first published by Power to Decide in 2017. Because the methodology behind these maps is new, there's no way to compare them with past models to see whether access has improved or worsened over the years. But Megan Kavanaugh, principal data researcher at Guttmacher, says there's reason to believe the current picture is already worse than what these maps show, as the data that informed them came from 2020-2023. Many clinics have since closed, and changes in federal Title X grant distributions, partly related to opposition to abortion, may lead to more clinic closures.
The Iran war has caused extensive damage to U.S. bases and created shortages in American weapons, according to reports from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Pentagon Inspector General. Both of these reports come from independent, nonpartisan agencies. The reports reveal significant destruction at locations like the U.S. Naval Base in Bahrain, which the Pentagon has not addressed. They also show that around 60 U.S. aircraft, including around 30 Reaper drones costing at least $30 million each, have been destroyed. Both reports estimate the war has cost more than $30 billion, but these estimates don't include the cost of rebuilding damaged U.S. bases.
- 🎧 The CBO attempted to get these estimates from the Pentagon, but did not receive a response, NPR's Greg Myre says. If the U.S. maintains a large presence with limited fighting against Iran, the CBO says the cost of the war could rise by $2 billion to $3 billion monthly. While the U.S. has substantial stockpiles of weapons, the conflict has strained key munitions, particularly high-end defensive ones. The Trump administration is requesting an additional $67 billion for the Iran war and urgent military needs, but Congress has yet to act, and may not until after the midterms.
The Kennedy Center's board of directors voted yesterday to close the arts complex. The decision came shortly after a federal judge blocked a plan to place President Trump's name on the building or its grounds. The president vowed to cancel the center's planned renovation unless a higher court reverses the ruling to add his name.
- 🎧 This situation raises nearly as many questions as it has answers, NPR's Anastasia Tsioulcas says. NPR obtained a memo that the board received over the weekend, but it addressed only structural issues, not the details of programming. The board plans to move its signature events, the Kennedy Center Honors and the Mark Twain Prize, to new locations while continuing to support the National Symphony Orchestra. Tsioulcas says it remains unclear how they will accomplish these changes.
Deep dive
Buying a home is an expensive endeavor, and many homebuyers face an unexpected cost: junk fees. These fees have been around for decades and can go by different names, such as document fees and storage fees. Even though they're only a fraction of the total cost of buying a home, they can still strain buyers' finances because they are due at closing rather than being spread out over the years like a mortgage. These fees are increasingly being charged to both home buyers and sellers, who have collectively paid nearly $2 billion in junk fees each year, according to conservative estimates from the Consumer Policy Center. Here's why real estate agents are calling the fees greedy:
- 🔑 Real estate agents earn commissions on home sales, often exceeding $10,000. They typically share this commission with their brokerage, which can make additional fees seem excessive.
- 🔑 Brokerage companies often charge agents fees, expecting them to be passed on to consumers. The companies often recruit real estate agents by offering better splits on home sale commissions, then make up for the lost revenue through client fees.
- 🔑 These fees are sometimes added without proper disclosure, often just days or even hours before closing. Buyers must remain vigilant throughout the buying process.
Behind the story
by Majd Al-Waheidi, Morning Edition and Up First digital editor
A British crime reporter quit journalism to become a clown. My colleagues turned that premise into a radio interview. As I was writing the story for NPR.org, I fell down a rabbit hole researching adult clowning and its vocabulary: failure, laughter, performance, the flop.
What struck me was journalist John Simpson questioning whether he wanted to add to the "intellectual diet" of covering murder, crime and policing.
While I was working on the story, I went to a farewell party for a colleague. There, our Middle East editor offered another way of thinking about it, one I kept returning to long after the radio segment aired: Maybe this story was also about the afterlife of a journalist. And I kept wondering: Who are we when journalism is no longer the thing organizing our lives?
I know. News about the news business can get self-important. But this isn't another story about how hard journalism is these days.
Most days, the stories we cover arrive with their importance already apparent: war, AI doom, identity, somebody acting or failing to act. Maybe what feels weirder now is how easily seriousness becomes a measure of what deserves our attention. Then there was Simpson: a man learning how to fail onstage and make people laugh.
And somehow that felt revealing, too.
A story does not have to begin with a death or end with a politician reacting to it to show us something true.
Simpson did not stop paying attention when he stopped reporting on crime, I thought. He changed what he was paying attention to.
That thought made me think of a friend who has been telling me for a while to read The Artist's Way, a book about recovering the creative self. Maybe it is finally time. The world will keep giving us reasons to be serious. The least we can do is remember that laughter, art and other forms of expression beyond journalism can be forms of attention, too.
3 things to know before you go
- In Turkey, gold is often given as a gift and stashed at home to commemorate life milestones. But the Turkish government and economists warn that this tradition is actively undermining the economy.
- Prosecutors will not pursue the death penalty for Nick Reiner, who faces murder charges for allegedly killing his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
- Researchers say they've found krill in hydrothermal vents, which are essentially hot springs on the ocean floor. Understanding this new habitat can help scientists' efforts to protect the shrimp-like crustaceans that serve as vital food sources for penguins, seals and whales.
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
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