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The Fed raised rates to 3.75%–4% for its first hike since 2023, while five suspected Russian operatives face charges over an alleged $40,000 Brooklyn murder plot. Elsewhere, Brussels floats EU associate membership for Canada, the Dow drops 631 points, and diesel reaches a record $6.31.

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The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate a quarter-point to 3.75%–4%, its first increase since July 2023, on a unanimous vote. Chair Kevin Warsh said inflation has been "too high ... for too long," and 16 of 18 officials see another hike this year.

For households, the math hits credit cards and mortgages first, with August prices up 3.4% from a year earlier and savers the rare winners. It stings politically, too: Trump spent the spring demanding cuts from the chair he installed.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed an indictment charging five suspected Russian intelligence operatives with conspiring to finance terrorism, three also with murder-for-hire. The network allegedly recruited a Brooklyn man this summer to kill a prominent Russian dissident, offering $40,000 "for whoever does the work."

The defendants, including a former Russian intelligence colonel and his son, live in Russia and remain at large; a separate 2025 scheme allegedly dangled $25,000 to kill a Kremlin critic in Lithuania. Attorney General Todd Blanche vowed to stop adversaries "unleashing violence and terror on American soil."

Ursula von der Leyen went off-script in Strasbourg on Wednesday, telling guest Mark Carney she wants to open "the door for Canada to being the first associate member of the European Union." The chamber rose in a standing ovation.

Associate membership is a status that does not currently exist, some EU governments were reportedly furious they weren't consulted, and any move would need unanimity. Canada already sits inside the bloc's 150-billion-euro defense fund, and Carney's opposition is asking which powers he would cede to Brussels.

Eight German state premiers rallied behind Chancellor Friedrich Merz, urging stability over "debates over personnel" after his CDU sank to 17.2% in Saxony-Anhalt while the far-right AfD reached 43.8%.

An Argentine federal judge ordered Israel's Navitas and Britain's Rockhopper to halt the Sea Lion oilfield project near the Falklands pending an environmental review, deepening tensions with London.

Ursula von der Leyen offered Canada a status that doesn't exist yet, floating "associate member" of the EU for Mark Carney in Strasbourg, drawing a standing ovation and some furious, unconsulted capitals.

FBI and Coast Guard cyber teams boarded two foreign-flagged oil tankers in the Gulf of Mexico after network breaches reported in late August, finding no operational disruptions and naming no culprit.

The House held billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas in the Epstein probe, referring him to a Justice Department that now decides whether to prosecute.

Nearly one in five lawmakers who began this Congress won't be back, as NPR's tracker counts 99 seats guaranteed new occupants after a wave of retirements and 13 primary defeats.

Amazon lifts its starting wage to $20 an hour for full-time operations workers, adding Whole Foods discounts of 20% and credit-union access this fall, a floor now $6 above Walmart's.

Boeing shares slid more than 5% after CEO Kelly Ortberg said 737 Max output is taking longer to stabilize than expected, with Renton wing production the bottleneck at roughly 47 jets a month.

Harold Hamm's Continental Resources signed a memorandum with PDVSA to develop 126,000 acres of Venezuela's Orinoco Belt, holding an estimated 30 billion barrels, eight months after Maduro's ouster.

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Stanford scientists grew human brain tissue inside mice bred without most of their cortex, achieving the most extensive integration ever recorded as organoids filled 90% of the space and wired into the spinal cord.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted a fresh crater 728 feet across, bigger than the Roman Colosseum, carved by a May 2024 impact that went unnoticed for more than a year.

A Stanford tool called Paper2Agent turns any research paper into a queryable AI "virtual corresponding author," converting the AlphaGenome paper into one autonomously in about 45 minutes for $14 in compute.

Aaron Judge left Wednesday's game in Minneapolis with tightness in his lower right leg, a week after returning from a broken rib and now 4-for-26 with 13 strikeouts.

Seattle ruled Sam Darnold out for Sunday against Arizona with a glute injury deemed "very unique," handing backup Drew Lock his first start since 2024.

Emmitt Smith thinks Derrick Henry can catch him, telling DraftKings the Ravens back has the stamina to break his 24-year-old rushing record, with Henry sitting 5,193 yards behind.

Paralyzed A's prospect Ryan Lasko was released from New Jersey's Kessler Institute two months after arriving, clapped out by rehab staff as feeling begins returning to his legs and feet.

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" is now the highest-grossing film in domestic history, passing "The Force Awakens" at $936.8M after 47 days and sitting third worldwide at $2.45 billion.

Annie Dillard, the Pulitzer-winning author of 1974's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek," died at 81 in Massachusetts, leaving a dozen books, a National Humanities Medal and lifelong comparisons to Thoreau.

Merriam-Webster just added 1,400 words including "trash panda," "looksmaxxing" and "cuffing season," defining the Mandela effect too as many people collectively sharing the same false memory.

What it is: Diesel hit a record $6.31 a gallon nationally on Wednesday, according to AAA, up more than 70% from a year ago. The Iran war is the engine: roughly a fifth of the world's oil products and LNG once moved through the Strait of Hormuz, and those flows have collapsed.

The detail: Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline, capable of 3.6 million barrels a day, has been shut since Friday's drone attack, which Riyadh blames on Iran-backed Iraqi militias, and global crude now sits above $108 versus $70 in June.

The companies that move America's goods are rattled. J.B. Hunt's CFO, Brad Delco, called these "some of the most radical and abnormal swings in fuel prices that I think we've ever seen," warned third-quarter earnings could fall 5% to 10%, and watched the stock drop more than 13%. Norfolk Southern's Claude Elkins was blunter: "out here, it's $8 diesel ... which is like science fiction."

Why it matters: Trucks, trains and tractors run on diesel, so the surcharge lands on groceries and packages whether or not you own one. Gasoline alone drove more than a third of August's monthly inflation, and the Dow Jones Transportation Average fell nearly 3% Wednesday.

What to watch: GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan expects the national average to pass $6.50 within two days, with California already above $8. Chatham House's Neil Quilliam says the pipeline could stay down eight weeks; Energy Secretary Chris Wright insists it restarts "very soon." Whoever is right sets the price of everything shipped this fall.

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A Michelin-starred Seoul restaurant was fined 15 million won for garnishing dishes with ants, because South Korea's food code has strong opinions about which insects count as ingredients.

Pokémon collectors queued around the block for the franchise's 30th-anniversary card release in London, a moment die-hards are already calling the biggest day in a decade.

The Obama family's Portuguese water dog Sunny has died after 13 years with the family, a tenure that included White House meetings with Pope Francis and roughly a million official photographs.

The Mayflower departs Plymouth, England (1620) · Father Miguel Hidalgo's Grito de Dolores launches Mexico's fight for independence (1810) · William Durant founds General Motors (1908) · A bomb outside J.P. Morgan's Wall Street headquarters kills 38 (1920) · Malaysia is formed (1963) · The Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting substances is signed (1987)

"perhaps the single most successful international agreement to date" — Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, on the Montreal Protocol

Five Minute Daily brings the biggest developments across world affairs, money, science, sports and culture into one concise morning read. Share today’s edition with someone who wants to stay informed, and subscribe for the next briefing.

—The Five Minute Daily Team