The overnight assassinations of the top leaders of the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups, in Iran and Lebanon respectively, drastically shifted the already fraught state of affairs in the Middle East. Israel claimed responsibility for the killing of Hezbollah’s Fuad Shukr in Beirut, and Iran blamed Israel for the explosion in Tehran that killed Ismail Haniyeh, the top political leader of Hamas.

The dual assassinations threaten to derail the fragile peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas to end the war triggered by the terrorist group’s massacre of 1,200 Israeli civilians in October last year.

Attention is now on what Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran will do in response, and whether the tit-for-tat from Israel would result in a broader multi-national war in the region. The last time Iran retaliated against Israel in April, its military launched an unprecedented barrage of cruise and ballistic missiles. Most of the projectiles were intercepted.

The Federal Reserve is inching closer to cutting interest rates, signaling a rate reduction as soon as September if inflation continues trending downward and the labor market remains solid. Meanwhile, Fed officials left the policy rate unchanged at a 23-year high of 5.5 percent following the two-day policy meeting that concluded on Wednesday.

While no decisions have been made about future meetings, Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled that a rate cut could be on the table as early as the September policy meeting. “The broad sense of the committee is that the economy is moving closer to the point at which it will be appropriate to reduce our policy rate,” Powell said on Wednesday.

The futures market has been signaling for a while that the Fed is likely to pull the trigger on a rate cut at the September meeting. A Fed policy pivot has become all but certain for Wall Street as inflation pressures soften and the U.S. economy shows signs of slowing.

Former President Donald Trump sat for an interview on July 31 with a panel of journalists that quickly became contentious. The event was conducted in front of a live audience in Chicago by the National Association of Black Journalists. Some journalists criticized the decision to invite Trump to the event. Columnist Karen Attiah resigned as co-chair of the convention the day prior to Trump’s visit, posting on social media, “To the journalists interviewing Trump, I wish them the best of luck.”

The first question set the mood for the entire conversation, with the journalist accusing Trump of insulting black congresswomen and using demeaning terms to describe some black journalists. Trump called the opening salvo a “rude introduction.”

From there, the panelists proceeded with prepared questions on policy points and other topics including DEI, inflation, immunity from prosecution for police officers, and voting rights. Trump often used his answers to pivot to other topics but did answer some directly, including several queries about the selection of Sen. JD Vance for running mate.