News Wrap: Fed leaves interest rates unchanged while signaling future cuts

Amna Nawaz:

We start the day's other news with the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Officials left interest rates unchanged for the fourth straight time today. They also said they expect to cut rates twice by the end of the year, even as worries over inflation persist. At a press conference today, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that uncertainty is unusually elevated amid ongoing concerns over the impact of President Trump's tariffs.

Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve Chairman:

People will be trying not to be the ones who pick up the cost, but, ultimately, the cost of the tariff has to be paid. And some of it will fall on the end consumer. We know that because that's what businesses say, that's what the data say from past — so we know that's coming, and we just want to see a little bit of that before we make judgments prematurely.

Amna Nawaz:

Just hours before this afternoon's Fed announcement, President Trump renewed his complaints about Powell's unwillingness to cut rates, calling him stupid and even floating the idea of installing himself as chair.

The State Department says it's resuming the process to allow foreigners to apply for student visas. But applicants will now have to make their social media counts public for review, or they could be rejected. The department said its officers will be looking for signs of — quote — "hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States."

Last month, the Trump administration temporarily stopped scheduling new interviews for such visas. It's part of a broader crackdown on overseas students hoping to study here.

The Supreme Court is reviving plans to store nuclear waste at sites in Texas and New Mexico. The justices today rejected a challenge from Texas and a group of landowners over a private company's plans to store the material in the state. The decision is expected to apply to a similar site in New Mexico. The two facilities are meant to be temporary. Plans for a permanent location in Nevada have been delayed due to local opposition.

Nearly 100,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel are piling up at plants across the U.S. It's meant to be stored deep underground for safety.

The Food and Drug Administration says today it's approved the world's only twice-a-year injection for HIV prevention. The drug, called lenacapavir, is not a vaccine, but it nearly eliminated new infections in two groundbreaking clinical trials.

Its maker, Gilead, says it represents a milestone in bringing the world closer to containing the spread of the virus, which still infects 30,000 Americans each year and more than a million people worldwide. But there are concerns that the Trump administration's proposed cuts to federal funding for HIV prevention could limit its impact.

Federal health officials say a listeria outbreak in more than a dozen states is linked to meals sold at Kroger and Walmart. Authorities say at least three people have died and 17 people sickened since the outbreak started last August. Food producer FreshRealm is recalling varieties of its chicken Alfredo products made before June 17.

Officials advise people with those items in their homes to throw them out or return them. Listeria infections are especially dangerous for older people, those with weakened immune systems and pregnant women.

Southern Mexico is bracing for what could be the first major Pacific hurricane of the season. Hurricane Erick is now a Category 2 storm as it churns off the coast of Puerto Angel with maximum sustained winds around 100 miles an hour. Forecasters say it could make landfall on Thursday as a Category 3 storm.

Residents are preparing for a potentially deadly storm surge, as well as mudslides and up to 20 inches of rain. As of this afternoon, a hurricane warning was in effect along the coast from Acapulco to Puerto Angel.

On Wall Street today, stocks closed little changed following that Fed rate announcement. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped about 40 points on the day. The Nasdaq added just 25 points. The S&P 500 closed a touch lower, but basically flat.

And astronomers in Chile released a detailed image today of a spiral galaxy located 11 million light years away. This dazzling panoramic shot of the Sculptor Galaxy contains thousands of colors indicating stars, gas and dust. Usually, such images have just a handful of shades. Scientists used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, or VLT, to record around 50 hours of imagery.

They then stitched together more than 100 exposures to create that picture. They hope it will serve as a cosmic mile marker to allow for further mapping of this galaxy and others.