Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Fed Chair Jerome Powell delivered newly discouraging news today: “The Federal Reserve left its key interest rate unchanged at between 5.25% and 5.5% — the highest level in more than a decade — as annual inflation rates continued to stall. In its statement announcing the hold, the central bank said that in recent months, there had been ‘a lack of further progress’ toward its 2% percent inflation goal.”
* Progress in Phoenix: “The Arizona Legislature on Wednesday is poised to leave 19th-century abortion policy behind with a Senate vote to repeal a 160-year-old law.”
* Many of those sanctioned are in China: “The Biden administration on Wednesday announced nearly 300 new sanctions on international suppliers of military equipment technology that the administration said have been helping Russia restock its arsenal as it carries out the war in Ukraine.”
* On a related note: “Security forces in [the country of] Georgia used water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades against protesters outside parliament late on Tuesday, sharply escalating a crackdown after lawmakers debated a ‘foreign agents’ bill which is viewed by the opposition and Western nations as authoritarian and Russian-inspired.”
* More student-loan debt relief: “The Biden administration on Wednesday canceled more than $6 billion in student debt for 317,000 people who attended the Art Institutes, a now-defunct network of for-profit colleges that President Biden said ‘knowingly misled’ students.”
* On Capitol Hill: “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said Wednesday she will force a vote next week to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, daring Democrats and the speaker’s GOP allies to step in and save his job.” * Nightmare fuel: “A chilling assessment came from FBI Director Christopher A. Wray in an interview with NBC News last week. ‘As I look back over my career in law enforcement, I’m hard-pressed to come up with a time when I’ve seen so many different threats, all elevated, all at the same time.’ He said concerns were rising before Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel, but since then ‘it’s gone to a whole other level.’” * The vote from the General Conference delegates was 692 to 51: “United Methodist delegates repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy with no debate on Wednesday, removing a rule forbidding ‘self-avowed practicing homosexuals’ from being ordained or appointed as ministers.” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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