FIVE MINUTE DAILY

Fed officials are leaning toward another rate hike this year, while a proposed $70,000 OPT fee could reshape how international students find U.S. jobs. Meanwhile, 9/11 families packed a courtroom in their case against Saudi Arabia, and an FBI sting allegedly stopped a planned Mall of America shooting.

Clint Brauer returned to his family farm after his father developed Parkinson’s. What began as a personal mission became Greenfield Robotics: robots designed to replace herbicides with mechanical weed control.

Investors in this round can qualify for up to a 20% bonus.

Invest in Greenfield Robotics

^{This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Please read the Offering Circular and related disclosures before investing. This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment.}

Most Federal Reserve officials expect another interest rate increase will likely be needed this year, according to minutes released Wednesday from a September meeting that lifted rates to about 3.9%. The summary offered no hint of timing, yet 16 of the 18 officials submitting forecasts expected another increase, and the Fed's next two decisions land Oct. 28 and Dec. 9.

Officials unanimously agreed inflation remained elevated, and the Fed's preferred gauge showed prices up 3.4% from a year earlier in August, with core prices climbing 3%.

The Department of Homeland Security proposed Wednesday a $70,000 fee for international students seeking to work in the US through the program known as OPT, which colleges would pay. Schools would owe the fee for each student's initial application plus $30,000 for every renewal, and the public gets 60 days to comment before DHS can finalize the rule.

DHS called the program a "pipeline for cheap foreign labor," while NAFSA chief Fanta Aw warned that driving away international students "will only hurt American innovation" and growth.

More than 100 relatives of 9/11 victims packed a New York appeals courtroom Wednesday as three judges weighed whether lawsuits against Saudi Arabia can finally proceed toward trial. The suits allege Saudi government employees knowingly aided at least two of the 19 hijackers, while the kingdom argues sovereign immunity should shield it from the nearly quarter-century case.

Terry Strada, whose husband Tom was killed in the attacks, said the judges "hammered the Saudi attorneys and didn't let up" during a hearing she called "a good day."

Three years after the attack, grieving Israelis are demanding accountability for October 7 failures, and still no independent state inquiry has examined how the deadliest assault since 1948 happened.

Canada's justice minister said Wednesday the country will indefinitely bar assisted dying for people whose sole condition is mental illness, abandoning an expansion that had been scheduled for March 2027.

Militants tied to the Islamic State attacked a military base in Nigeria's Borno state Tuesday, and a senior officer told AP 10 soldiers were killed before troops repelled the assault.

A rocky Arizona "wonderland" of spires is close to becoming the 64th national park, after Congress passed bipartisan legislation creating Chiricahua National Park that now heads to Trump's desk.

More households say they're worse off than a year ago and expect to slip further, a New York Fed survey found Wednesday, as consumers braced for even higher inflation ahead.

The union for 55,000 flight attendants raised safety concerns about Trump's arch, the planned 250-foot memorial sitting on the final approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Levi Strauss raised its profit outlook Wednesday after tariff refunds lifted third-quarter margins, though the denim maker trimmed full-year revenue growth guidance to 7%, the bottom of its range.

Britain's Boots pharmacy chain was sold to Canada's Weston family for $8.9 billion, ending the 177-year-old retailer's 18-month stretch under US private equity firm Sycamore Partners.

Modelo and Corona maker Constellation Brands beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, but slightly lower distributor depletions signaled softer beer demand than shipments suggested, amid lingering consumer caution.

It’s your always-on revenue engine: agents and workflows build pipeline, chase every buying signal, and move deals forward alongside your team.

Teams like Parallel, Turbopuffer, and Wordsmith build on Attio. Are you one of them?

Try Attio now

A 165-million-year-old fossil from Inner Mongolia suggests an ancient mammal could chew, swallow and suckle, researchers reported in Nature, with a platypus-like tail likely built for swimming.

Foraging communities 7,000 miles apart share nearly 90% of their gut bacteria, a new Nature study suggests, hinting those microbes traveled with migrating humans across continents long ago.

The FCC will vote on auctioning 25 megahertz of "prime spectrum" for satellite links to smartphones, a move that could benefit SpaceX and Amazon, both expanding their direct-to-device satellite networks.

Two-time major champion Jon Rahm is leaving the bankrupt LIV Golf League, his attorney told a New Jersey bankruptcy court, calling the proposed terms of LIV 2.0 "unacceptable."

Baltimore traded for center Cam Jurgens, sending a 2028 second-round pick and a 2027 fifth to Philadelphia after injuries left the Ravens on their fourth center of the season.

Odell Beckham Jr. joined the Vikings' practice squad with Justin Jefferson hurting, giving a 4-0 team that ranks last in passing yards a veteran with 7,987 career receiving yards.

Opal Lee, the "grandmother of Juneteenth," turned 100 Wednesday as crews broke ground on the Juneteenth museum in Fort Worth, which is projected to open in 2029.

Disney+ will stream the Super Bowl for all US subscribers in February, plus two Monday Night Football games, with ad spots already sold out at a record-early pace.

Sir David Attenborough, who turned 100 this year, narrates Blue Planet III's six-part ocean journey, airing on the BBC this fall with an original score from Hans Zimmer.

What it is: FBI agents arrested an 18-year-old Richfield man Tuesday after he allegedly paid $600 for an AK-47 and 200 rounds, intending a mass shooting at the Mall of America. The seller was an undercover FBI employee posing as an Islamic State member, and the rifle had been rendered inert before Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud ever took possession of it.

The detail: According to the Justice Department's charging announcement, Mohamud began messaging a confidential source in December 2024, first talking about joining militants in Somalia before settling on a Minnesota target.

Prosecutors say he named the mall in July, talked of killing 30 to 60 people, and picked Oct. 24, the date of a Hmong Arts Celebration there. He faces one count of receiving a firearm and ammunition to commit a federal crime of terrorism, and like every defendant he is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

Why it matters: U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen told parents nationwide that when federal agents warn that a son or daughter is being radicalized, "those are warnings that ought to be heeded."

What to watch: Mohamud, who made his first court appearance Wednesday in St. Paul, told the judge he has no job, house, car or savings, and a federal public defender now represents him. Watch for how his defense addresses the sting itself, since an FBI informant spent nearly two years messaging him and an undercover employee supplied the weapon he allegedly bought.

Give a Skydive agent an ongoing responsibility and they’ll handle it on schedule, every time.

Have them prep your morning report, research new leads, monitor customer feedback, or keep projects moving overnight. You wake up, the work is already done.

Make your first agent

The Idaho Potato Commission and Spud Daddy served up 1,474 pounds of fries at Boise Potato Days, claiming the Guinness record for the largest serving of French fries ever.

A British grower, Ian Paton, broke his own pumpkin world record with Bagheera, a 2,856.8-pound gourd that drank about 130 gallons of water a day and will become cow feed.

A Pikachu plush in an astronaut costume toured the International Space Station in a new European Space Agency video, learning along the way that even astronaut urine gets recycled.

The Granite Railway, the first chartered US railroad, begins service (1826) · Georgia Tech beats Cumberland 222-0 (1916) · East Germany is founded (1949) · The first barcode patent is issued (1952) · Gunmen hijack the cruise ship Achille Lauro (1985) · Arnold Schwarzenegger wins California's recall election (2003)

"I will not fail you. I will not disappoint you and I will not let you down." — Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his 2003 victory speech

Enjoyed today's Five Minute Daily? Forward to a friend who wants the world in five minutes.

—The Five Minute Daily Team