Thursday morning news: September 18, 2025

Editor's note: The following text is a transcript of a podcast story. To listen to the story, click on the arrow beneath the headline above.

Federal Reserve announcement » The Federal Reserve is cutting its key interest rate by a quarter-point, the first cut since December.

Chairman Jerome Powell said the board decided that under the circumstances, the time is right to make a change.

POWELL:  In the near term, risks to inflation are tilted to the upside and risks to employment, to the downside. A challenging situation. When our goals are in tension like this, our framework calls for us to balance both sides of our dual mandate.

With that balanced approach, the Fed also projects it will cut interest rates twice more this year.

Until now, Powell and most of the Fed board had been united on holding off on rate cuts as they evaluated the impact of high tariffs and other policy shifts.

 POWELL: Higher tariffs have begun to push up prices in some categories of goods, but their overall effects on economic activity and inflation remain to be seen.

President Trump welcomed the Fed’s rate cut but blasted it as too small, saying the central bank should have acted more aggressively. 

Trump UK state visit » President Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are set to meet today in London for trade talks. The president says UK leaders are hoping to get U.S. tariffs on British goods reduced.

But while it’s down to business today, it was all pageantry at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.

SOUND: [Marching band]

Trump looked on from a tent, sitting alongside King Charles III, as the UK hosts the president for a second state visit.

SOUND: [Bagpipes]

The festivities included lunch with the royal family in the State Dining Room, wreath-laying at Queen Elizabeth II’s tomb, and a state banquet at Windsor Castle in the evening, with speeches.

Former CDC director testimony » On Capitol Hill:

AUDIO:   The Senate Committee on Health Education, labor and pensions will please come to order.

The committee heard testimony from the former director of the CDC, Susan Manarez who told senators that America’s public health system is headed to a “dangerous place”

HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired Monarez last month. And Monarez claimed that was because she refused Kennedy’s request to rubber-stamp vaccine recommendations without seeing the evidence behind the changes.

MONAREZ: I refused to do it because I have built a career on scientific integrity and my worst fear was that I would then be in a position of approving something that would reduce access of life-saving vaccines to children and others who need them.

Kennedy rejects her account, calling it “false.” He says he never asked her to ignore evidence and that she was removed —after less than a month on the job because she was “not trustworthy.”

FBI gate crash » A Pennsylvania man is facing felony charges after ramming his car into a manned gate at an FBI office in Pittsburgh.

Authorities say after 49-year-old Donald Henson smashed the gate just before 3 a.m. Wednesday, he pulled an American flag from his car, threw it over the gate, and ran away.

Christopher Giordano is the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the office.

GIORDANO: We do believe that there is a mental health problem and a history of mental health issues with the subject.

Giordano called the incident “a targeted act of terror,” but FBI officials later clarified they are not treating it as a terrorism investigation.

Routh trial, audio » The trial is underway this week of Ryan Routh, a man accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on a golf course last year.

And the Department of Justice now has released the audio of the Secret Service agent’s radio transmission from the day of the incident.

SECRET SERVICE: Shots fired! Shots fired! Shots fired! Individual in a bush with a gun.

That shot was fired by the Secret Service agent heard there after spotting the barrel of a rifle poking out of the bushes in his direction.

SECRET SERVICE: All units be advised it looks like an AK 47 style assault rifle pointed through the fence onto the golf course. Individual has not gained entry to the golf course. He is on the exterior of the compound.

Prosecutors say Routh’s fingerprints were on the scope of that rifle.

Routh is representing himself in the trial. The prosecution is expected to rest its case as early as today.

Ukraine expects $3.5 billion fund for U.S. weapons » Ukraine will soon receive U.S.-made missiles for Patriot air defense systems and HIMARS rocket launchers under a new international funding program. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher reports.

ZELENSKYY: (Speaking Ukrainian)

BENJAMIN EICHER: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday the first batches are already moving, with more shipments expected in the weeks ahead.

The weapons are being financed through a NATO-led mechanism that pools money from U.S. allies to buy American arms.

Known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, the fund has already secured more than $2 billion, with total commitments expected to reach $3.5 billion next month.

Separately, Washington and Kyiv are launching a $150 million fund to spur investment in Ukraine’s mineral sector—part of efforts to rebuild the economy while sustaining military support.

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: United Nations accusations against Israel. Plus, remembrances of Charlie Kirk around the world. 

This is The World and Everything in It.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.