| | Good afternoon. Here’s what you should know today, Aug. 21: |
| - DNC speakers are trying to annoy Donald Trump
- As Gen X approaches retirement, reality still bites
- The number of patients under 65 getting joint replacements roughly doubled over the past two decades
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| | Thanks for reading What’s News! Look for the 🔐 to enjoy a free article on us—and share the link with a friend (or forward the whole newsletter!). |
| |  | Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, in July. PHOTO: AL DRAGO/BLOOMBERG NEWS |
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| 1. At their July meeting, Fed officials overwhelmingly wanted to cut interest rates at their next get-together in September. |
| Some even suggested a cut in July, according to minutes of last month’s meeting, released today. With more evidence of cooling inflation and a weakening labor market, the discussion at the Sept. 17-18 meeting will more likely be about the size of interest-rate cuts (🔐 read for free) rather than whether to reduce rates. The most recent cause for concern is a preliminary revision to Labor Department data, also released today, showing that employers might have added 818,000 fewer jobs in the 12 months through March than previously thought. Major U.S. stock indexes rose after the Fed minutes were released. |
| Charles Schwab Wants to Fix Its Struggling Bank. Investors Are Skeptical. (Read) Discount-Hungry Shoppers Propel Sales Gains for Target and T.J. Maxx (Read) Ford Shrinks Its EV Rollout Plans as Demand Lags (Read) |
| 2. Divers located the bodies of five of the six passengers who went missing after a yacht sank off the Sicilian coast. |
| Two were found behind a mattress in a cabin, officials said without identifying them. One person remains unaccounted for and is presumed dead after a sudden storm sank the 180-foot-long Bayesian on Monday. Fifteen people, including a 1-year-old, were rescued. All were celebrating British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch’s freedom after around a year of house arrest in the U.S. A nearly 13-year saga ended in June when he was acquitted of fraudulently inflating revenues at his company before he sold it. Lynch, Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo were among the missing. |
| 3. Democrats are using their convention stage to provoke Donald Trump. |
| Speakers have mocked the former president’s wealth, fixation on crowd size and other sore spots in an effort to get him off message. The party would prefer his attack responses to the more disciplined anti-Kamala Harris focus that his advisers have encouraged. Meanwhile, the upbeat convention comes thanks to Nancy Pelosi who helped pressure President Biden to step aside after his disastrous presidential debate in June. The former House speaker, former President Bill Clinton and Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are scheduled to speak tonight. |
| Follow live coverage and analysis (Read) Walz’s Uber-Liberal Record as Governor Opens Line of Attack for GOP (Read) How Pro-Palestinian Influencers Are Using Social Media to Push Harris on Israel (Read) Tough U.S. Sanctions Packages Are Here to Stay—Whether It’s Harris or Trump (Read) |
| 4. One of the biggest sticking points of the Gaza cease-fire talks is the future of the Rafah border crossing and control over two corridors within the enclave. |
| Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said pulling troops from those places would allow Hamas to reconstitute. Israel has long said that militants use tunnels underneath one of the corridors to smuggle weapons between Egypt and Gaza. Egypt denies such routes exist. Current and former Israeli military officials say instead of stationing troops at those places, soldiers can use sensors to alert them to tunnel-building efforts and disrupt them with targeted raids. The optics of Israel controlling key locations in Gaza also could be bad. |
| Gaza Cease-Fire Talks Put Iran Attack on Hold (Read) |
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| | ~$60,000 | The median account balance that people between 45 and 54 years old had in defined-contribution retirement plans at Vanguard Group in 2023, the firm said. A common target is to have roughly six times one’s salary saved for retirement by age 50. Many Gen Xers are lagging behind on retirement savings. Their careers started as companies moved from pensions that promise steady income to plans such as 401(k)s that place employees’ retirement destinies in their own hands. Some also were hit hard during the 2008 financial crisis, are still paying off student debt or are helping to care for aging parents. |
| | “The two things I’ve heard most is, ‘Wow, you’re young for this,’ and, ‘My grandma’s hip surgery went great!’” | —Carol Pope, a 37-year-old avid runner who, after being diagnosed with osteoarthritis and told to stop running, scheduled a hip replacement. More young people are undergoing hip and knee replacements because of joint-pressure-inducing obesity and an unwillingness to sacrifice decades enjoying intense, high-impact fitness activities. |
| | “It is an oddball amongst oddballs.” | —Julien de Wit, a MIT planetary scientist and co-author of a study about a planet 1,200 light-years or so away from Earth that is 50% larger than Jupiter and as fluffy as cotton candy. WASP-193 b, one of the least dense planets ever discovered, is puzzling astronomers. |
| | - How a General’s Blunder Left Russia’s Border Vulnerable (Read)
- Kehinde Wiley Was on Top of the World. Then the Accusations Started. (Read)
- Bangladesh’s Protesters Take Power and Find Governing Isn’t Easy (Read)
- Matthew Perry’s Tragic Quest to Get Well (Read)
- High School Football Welcomes Some New Recruits: Girls (Read)
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| |  | ILLUSTRATION: DAVID URBAN |
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| Retirees can make travel more satisfying and less exhausting. |
| Older travelers often prefer a slower, more relaxed pace. Start off by traveling off-season or visiting secondary destinations to avoid crowds. Once there, focus on a few sites rather than cramming everything in and, if the previous day’s excursions were too challenging, improvise. To avoid wasting energy on packing and unpacking (how many times does a person need to see their clothes and TSA-approved toiletries?), stay at each location for at least three nights. |
| | | Earlier this week, we asked about recent visits to national parks. Here’s what you had to say: We visited the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park for a week in July. It was gorgeous. There were less ranger programs than there used to be but otherwise everything seemed fine. There was no one manning the entrance station when we arrived and left so it seems like a bit of lost revenue ($35 a car).
—Daniel Patrick, California I have visited 377 of the 420-plus sites the National Park Service manages. It has been a privilege to do so. But it is time to give NPS the funding it deserves. They protect, conserve and, at the same time, make accessible our national treasures in the form of parks and historical/cultural sites. If not for NPS, there would be condos on the rim of the Grand Canyon.
—Lynn Dempsey, Illinois Responses have been condensed and edited. |
| What do you make of Americans getting knee and hip replacements earlier? Let us know at whatsnewsletter@wsj.com or reply to this newsletter. Include your full name and location, and we may publish your response in an upcoming issue. |
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| | | Everyone is talking about Ohio. It has nothing to do with Ohio. |
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Welcome to my geopolitics blog site. This is a Hawaii Island news site focusing on geopolitical news, analysis, information, and commentary. I will cite a variety of sources, ranging from all sides of the political spectrum.