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Today’s top stories

The Labor Department released a report yesterday showing that consumer prices in June were up 2.7% from a year ago. That’s a greater annual increase than in the month prior. President Trump’s tariffs are making it difficult for the Federal Reserve to bring inflation under control. Despite this, he is pressing its leader, Jerome Powell, to cut interest rates quickly.

• 🎧 The effects of tariffs on inflation so far have been fairly muted, ReadNOW’s Scott Horsley tells Up First. Yesterday’s report shows higher inflation from the month before, which reflects Trump’s tariffs on imported goods like toys, clothing and appliances. The rising inflation means Powell and others with the Fed will most likely hold interest rates steady at their next meeting as they monitor how quickly inflation rises, Stephen Kates, a financial analyst at Bankrate, tells Horsley. Kates says we are likely to see more tariff-driven price hikes in the coming months.

The Senate voted late yesterday to advance debate on a package of funding cuts requested by Trump. The cuts are aimed at $7.9 billion earmarked for international efforts to combat famine and disease and $1.1 billion previously allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Most of the money toward CPB goes to local public radio and TV stations, including those that carry ReadNOW. If it passes, CPB will lose the funding Congress appropriated for the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years.

• 🎧 The vote was so close that Vice President JD Vance had to break a 50-50 tie, says ReadNOW’s Scott Neuman. Republicans want to cut funds to ReadNOW and PBS because of what they believe is political bias, which the networks deny. All Senate Democrats voted against the measure, and three prominent Republicans, Sens. Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, joined them. McConnell, Murkowski and Collins expressed concern about the White House Office of Management and Budget’s unclear explanation of how the cuts would be applied. The Senate is expected to begin debating cuts to ReadNOW, PBS and foreign aid this morning, which will be followed by a vote.

Note: Under ReadNOW’s protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is now calling for the Trump administration to release the files about Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died by suicide in jail, was connected to many rich and famous people. Johnson told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson yesterday that he is “for transparency.” Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in February that Epstein’s alleged client list was on her desk for review. Now, the Justice Department says there is no list, and Bondi has refused to address questions about her handling of the files from the Epstein investigation.

Deep dive

If you haven’t heard of stablecoins yet, you may soon, as Congress is poised to adopt legislation this week to establish a formal framework for the sector. Stablecoins are designed to be a safer type of cryptocurrency. The main goal is to enable people and companies to instantly transfer money as digital currency anywhere in the world without the interference of banks or money transfer companies, which can cause delays and charge fees. Here’s what you need to know.

• 💰 Stablecoins are similar to chips at a casino. When you give the cashier $100 for chips, you can use those chips to gamble. Just like in a casino, the issuer of the stablecoin should have the funds available to pay you when you redeem your chips.
• 💰 The House is considering the GENIUS Act, which requires issuers to maintain proper one-to-one reserves and ensure compliance with anti-money-laundering regulations.
• 💰 Big retailers are hoping to benefit from the currency because they would no longer have to pay billions of dollars in fees for credit card transactions.

Life advice

After a bad breakup, Melissa Febos decided to take a break from dating and sex for a year. She had been in relationships since she was 15 and hoped the period of celibacy would help her develop a more “authentic relationship to sex with other people.” Febos chronicled her abstinence journey in the book The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex. During that time, she realized that she gave a lot of energy to sex and love. When she withdrew that energy, she had more of it to feed into herself. Febos says the most outstanding thing she catered to was developing a spiritual sense of being in the world, which she had relegated to her love life. She learned she could experience this in nature, through art, friendship, herself, and other forms of intimacy. Febos spoke with Life Kit about the surprising gifts of celibacy. Here’s some insight from her experience that could provide guidance for you and your love life.

For more guidance on abstinence from sex, listen to this episode of ReadNOW’s Life Kit. Subscribe to the Life Kit newsletter for expert advice on love, money, relationships and more.

3 things to know before you go

1. The nominations for the 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards were announced yesterday. Here is the full list of nominees and the takeaways.
2. A SpaceX capsule with four astronauts on the private Ax-4 mission splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego early yesterday, concluding a 20-day journey in space.
3. Colorado’s poet laureate, Andrea Gibson, died at home on Monday from ovarian cancer. They were 49 years old. (via CPR)

This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.