All Eyes On Powell

Your unbiased daily news brief

August 22, 2025

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Good Friday morning. Cracker Barrel's rebrand is not going well. Have a great weekend!

In Today’s Brief

  • Villanova: Shooter hoax

  • Bolsonaro: Asylum plans

  • Trump: Fine dropped

  • Airlines: Seating lawsuit

  • Happy Gilmore 2: Streaming record

... and more

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The Top Tip

Big talk

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will deliver a much-anticipated policy speech today.

  • The news: Powell will give the keynote address to close out the central bank’s annual summer retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. His comments will be heavily scrutinized as Wall Street looks toward next month and the remainder of the year in regards to interest rate cuts.

  • Go deeper: Powell called the U.S. jobs market “solid” a few weeks ago, which suggested the Fed was not ready to consider a cut. But a bad jobs report and downward revisions have since followed — opening the door for a cut in September. Markets closed down yesterday ahead of the speech.

  • Big picture: Powell is also trying to protect the Fed’s independence as his term winds down. President Donald Trump has blasted Powell — who he appointed — on numerous occasions for not cutting rates, but has refrained from firing him (which legal experts say would be illegal). But Trump has attacked the Fed in other ways, criticizing its headquarters renovations and accusing Lisa Cook, a board member, of mortgage fraud.

Quick Tips

U.S. News

  • A false active shooter alert caused panic at Villanova University. The school's president said it was a "cruel hoax" while Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said the situation was the result of a swatting call; a similar incident also happened at Tennessee-Chattanooga (More)

  • Erik Menendez was denied parole by a California state board; Lyle Menendez's hearing is set for today. The infamous brothers are bidding for freedom after being resentenced decades after they murdered their parents; Gov. Gavin Newsom could overrule the parole board and grant clemency (More)

  • Six people died in an accident at a Colorado dairy farm. Few details were released about the incident about 45 miles outside Denver, but fire crews were dispatched for a "confined space rescue," according to officials (More)

World News

  • Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro allegedly planned to seek asylum in Argentina. He is scheduled to stand trial next month on charges he participated in an attempted coup; police reportedly found evidence of his plot to flee the country on his phone (More)

  • Russia is reportedly demanding Ukraine keep Western troops out of the country as part of any peace deal, reneging on pledges the Trump Administration said it made. The Kremlin is also said to want the entire Donbas region and for Kiev to renounce NATO aspirations (More)

  • North Korea likely has a covert missile base near its border with China, according to a U.S. think tank. The alleged secret facility is one of over a dozen experts believe Pyongyang operates across its territory (More)

Political News

  • A New York court tossed President Trump's $465M civil business fraud penalty on appeal, but upheld his guilty verdict. The decision found the fine was unconstitutionally excessive; state Attorney General Leticia James said she will fight the ruling (More)

  • Trump said Republicans can add 100 House seats through state-by-state redistricting and ending mail-in balloting. Longtime Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat, said he will retire if the state's new GOP-drawn congressional districts are not blocked by the courts (More | More)

  • Former California Rep. Katie Porter is the early favorite in next year's gubernatorial race, a new poll found. The Democrat has a 14-point lead on ex-Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in the projected primary (More)

Business & Markets

  • Major indexes closed lower yesterday. The Dow Jones slid over 150 points (Dow -0.34%, S&P 500 -0.40%, Nasdaq -0.35%)

  • Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are being sued for pricing windowless seats as window seats on some flights. A pair of class action lawsuits representing over 1M passengers were filed (More)

  • Dayforce is going private. The HR software provider has agreed to a $12.3B takeover deal with Thoma Bravo, a buyout firm; shareholders will get a 33% premium (More)

Entertainment & Sports

  • Happy Gilmore 2 set a Nielsen streaming record. The Netflix-exclusive film racked up 2.9B viewing minutes over its opening weekend last month, breaking the previous record by 700M views (More)

  • The SEC will play nine conference football games starting next season. The league's 16 members will also be required to play at least one non-conference game against a Power Four opponent or Notre Dame each year (More)

  • House Democrats are probing the Paramount-Skydance merger. They are investigating whether President Trump meddled in the deal and the media companies agreed to "illegitimate demands" to receive regulatory approval (More)