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What We’re Watching: Powell signals rate cuts, Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption push, Gaza starvation confirmed
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell attends the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's 2025 Jackson Hole economic symposium, "Labor Markets in Transition: Demographics, Productivity, and Macroeconomic Policy" in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, U.S., August 21, 2025.
Powell opens door to rate cuts
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled the central bank could cut rates as soon as next month during his annual Jackson Hole address, pointing to a slowing labor market and the risk that tariffs could push prices higher. While jobs remain stable, Powell noted that both hiring and labor demand are weakening. Markets jumped on the signal of easing, a win for President Donald Trump, who has been pressing the Fed to cut rates. But as Powell spoke, Trump renewed threats to fire Fed board member Lisa Cook, potentially allowing him to appoint a more sympathetic replacement — though he would face legal hurdles to do so.
Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption push nabs former president
Sri Lanka’s former president Ranil Wickremesinghe, who led the country from 2022 to 2024, was arrested Friday on corruption charges tied to oversees trips while in office. Wickremesinghe came to power following mass protests over the island’s worst-ever economic crisis, and was credited with stabilizing the economy and securing an IMF bailout. That bailout came with harsh austerity, however, fueling public anger and paving the way for his defeat last year to leftist reformer Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who campaigned on rooting out corruption. Wickremesinghe’s arrest is the most high-profile yet in a post-crisis anti-graft drive that has already ensnared 63 Sri Lankan officials and politicians.
Parts of Gaza suffering from starvation, food insecurity group finds
Half a million people in Gaza City and its surrounding areas are suffering from famine, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) concluded. Most other parts of Gaza are experiencing severe hunger, said the food monitor. Whether Gazans have been suffering from starvation has been the subject of much debate – the IPC last year refuted a USAID report that had argued there was famine. Recent images from Gaza, as well the IPC’s reversal, tell their own story. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies that there is starvation, and is pressing forward with plans to conquer Gaza City.Hard Numbers: Judge orders temp shutdown of Alligator Alcatraz, Colombian violence spreading, Women’s Rugby World Cup begins, & More
Protesters line the street outside Alligator Alcatraz in Ochopee, Florida, holding signs during a vigil on Aug. 10, 2025.
18: At least 18 people were killed during a pair of attacks around two of Colombia’s major cities on Thursday, the latest sign that the Latin American country’s security is deteriorating following the assassination of conservative presidential candidate Miguel Uribe. Left-wing President Gustavo Petro called for a security meeting to discuss additional protections.
9: There was another grim discovery in Kenya’s Shakahola Forest this week, as authorities exhumed nine bodies from fresh graves that are believed to be connected with an infamous starvation cult that once operated in this remote part of the East African country, sparking fears that the group still functions. The leader of the cult allegedly encouraged his followers to starve to death, and faces manslaughter charges.
6: Nearly six years after former US National Security Advisor John Bolton exited his White House role, the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided his Maryland home Friday morning in connection with a probe into whether he mishandled classified documents. There are concerns that the raid is politically motivated, since Bolton has become a fierce critic of US President Donald Trump since leaving the first Trump administration.
16: The Women’s Rugby World Cup begins today, as 16 countries battle it out for supremacy in a sport that has gained notoriety thanks to US player Ilona Maher’s massive online following – 375,000 tickets have already been sold for the tournament. England, which is hosting the tournament, will play against Maher’s United States in the opening match.
US President Donald Trump speaks during a visit to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., USA, on August 13, 2025.
Our motto at GZERO is, “Everything is political.”
Sports? You bet. See our piece earlier this year on Barcelona creating football academies in the Kurdish part of Iraq and Syria.
Food? Sure. Check out our 2022 report on the battle over where borscht was invented and learn just how heated that pot of soup can get.
Art? Duh. The author Toni Morrison said, “All good art is political.” Case in point, our coverage of a Broadway play about a measles outbreak among a community of anti-vaxxers in Berkeley, California.
But art can also be usurped by rulers and deployed as propaganda or a means of control. In ancient Rome, Augustus commissioned statues that depicted himself as eternally youthful and victorious – a pre-botox masterclass in excellent PR. On the eve of World War II, Adolf Hitler staged the notorious “Degenerate Art” exhibition to mock modernism and elevate “pure” Aryan aesthetics. And during the Cold War, Washington funded abstract expressionism – think Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko – as a subtle weapon against Soviet socialist realism.
Now in his second term in office, US President Donald Trump has made the arts a target and a tool, putting museums, cultural institutions, and federally-funded arts programs on the defensive. Case in point: his takeover of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
What’s the deal with the Kennedy Center? Since 1978, the DC-based theater has presented annual awards to artists who have contributed meaningfully to American culture. Past honorees include Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Dolly Parton – and every US president has attended the ceremony.
Until 2017, that is. Trump skipped every Kennedy Center honors program during his first term. That makes it even more intriguing that he would appoint himself chairman of the institution and handpick this year’s crop of awardees – including Sylvester Stallone, Gloria Gaynor, and the band KISS.
In February, Trump announced that his special envoy Richard Grenell would serve as executive director of the Kennedy Center, writing on Truth Social that there would be “no more drag shows or anti-American propaganda” on the schedule.
“We don’t need woke at the Kennedy Center,” Trump said.
Trump hasn’t stopped at the Kennedy Center. His attempt to rid the art world of “wokeism” has expanded to other institutions and programs. In March, the White House issued an executive order titled, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” specifically targeting the Smithsonian Institution for negative depictions of events in US history, including slavery. Instead, Trump has called for exhibits that “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”
Trump has also called for an elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) among other “woke” programs targeted in his budget proposal for fiscal year 2026.
But political battles over the arts aren’t new in the United States, either. In the late 1980s, a firestorm erupted over the NEA. Conservative lawmakers lambasted controversial works – most infamously Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs – as obscene and unworthy of public funding.
Liberals have had their moments, too. Does anyone reading remember Tipper Gore’s crusade to get parental advisory labels onto CDs at the record store? (For that matter, are you old enough to remember record stores?)
The second act has been different. Trump sat outside the cultural arena in his first presidency, largely avoiding and skipping the arts as a policy platform. This term is decidedly different. His administration is attempting to shape culture and art by eliminating what it considers offensive or woke.
It’s a reminder that everything is political, including a night at the theater or a stroll through a museum.
A service member of the 44th Separate Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fires a 2S22 Bohdana self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops near a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine August 20, 2025.
614: For all the US efforts to end it, the Russia-Ukraine war is showing no signs of slowing down, as Moscow fired 614 drones and other missiles at its neighbor. Kyiv said it intercepted 577 of the weapons, but some of them still landed on Ukrainian soil – one person died in Lviv, while 15 were reported wounded in the south-west region of Transcarpathia.
32,000: The living arrangements of 32,000 asylum seekers who live in United Kingdom hotels may be threatened, as a raft of local councils seek to use a High Court ruling from Tuesday as precedent to oust more refugees from local homestays. Around 80 councils, run by a range of political parties, are considering such a move.
170: Brazilian police have handed in a 170-page report accusing former President Jair Bolsonaro of planning to flee to Argentina ahead of his sentencing. The report is based on messages in Bolsonaro’s phone. He is facing a 40 year sentence for allegedly plotting a military coup.
$14 million: It’s often the ones you least expect. South African authorities have charged a leading conservationist with smuggling $14 million of rhino horns from the Rainbow Nation through to Southeast Asia. John Hume denied the allegations and said he has “nothing to hide.”
$100: An adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams handed a journalist a potato chip bag stuffed with a $100 bill, and a number of $20 bills, following a campaign event in the Harlem area of New York City on Wednesday. The intent behind the transfer is unclear, but the adviser’s lawyer said it was “a gesture of friendship and gratitude.” It’s not the only rough news for an Adams associate: several of the mayor’s aides and supporters are set to face corruption charges in the coming days.What We’re Watching: US-EU nail down the details of trade deal, IAEA sounds the alarm on Iran, China challenges Dalai Lama
President Donald Trump meets with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron.
US, EU publishes fine print of the trade deal
More details have emerged on the terms of the trade deal between the United States and European Union, which was first announced last month. European pharmaceuticals will now face a 15% tariff – US President Donald Trump had threatened a rate of “25% or higher.” There will also be 15% duties on EU automobiles, down from 27.5%, provided Brussels passes legislation to reduce its own 10% duties on car imports. The US could also cut rates on metals, up to a certain quota. In return, the EU pledged to invest heavily in American energy and AI chips, and to grant preferential market access for several US agricultural products. In a blow to wine aficionados, the EU wasn’t able to nab lower rates for its alcohol products. Quel cauchemar!
IAEA in the dark on Iran’s uranium
International Atomic Energy Agency officials head to Washington next week amid mounting concern over Iran’s unmonitored stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium. Inspectors have been shut out since June’s US & Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, leaving the agency unable to verify the fate of 409 kilograms of enriched uranium. Tehran cites radiological hazards to block access to key sites, while signaling limited cooperation elsewhere. With talks stalled and a UN sanctions deadline looming, diplomats say the IAEA’s understanding of Iran’s nuclear program is rapidly deteriorating – giving Iran an opening to potentially race to a bomb in the absence of international oversight.
In message to Dalai Lama, Xi visits Tibet
Not two months after the Dalai Lama declared that his office – and not China – would pick his successor, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday made only his second official visit to the autonomous, Himalayan region that his country officially annexed 60 years ago. The fact that the 72-year-old Xi went to the area, despite the health hazards of going to such high altitude, suggests he wanted to buttress his authority there – China’s leaders claim they have power over the Buddhist spiritual leader’s succession plans. His visit to Tibet led every major news bulletin in China, and also coincided with the recent announcement that China would build the world’s biggest dam there (read more on that here).
Members of the Hargeisa Basketball Girls team wrapped in the Somaliland flags walk on Road Number One during the Independence Day Eve celebrations in Hargeisa, Somaliland, on May 17, 2024.
Last week, US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) became the latest American conservative to voice support for Somaliland, as he publicly urged the Trump administration to recognize it as a country.
“Somaliland remains committed to forging closer ties with the US and is actively engaged in enhancing military cooperation, counterterrorism efforts, and economy and trade partnerships,” Cruz wrote in a letter to the White House. “To do so to the greatest effect and the greatest benefit to American national security interests, it requires the status of a state.”
So why is Cruz interested in a small, de facto state on the east coast of Africa?
First, a refresher on Somaliland. Even if you didn’t know already, you may have guessed from the name that Somaliland is formally part of Somalia, sitting in the northern part of the country and bordering Djibouti and Ethiopia.
It was originally a British protectorate, while the rest of Somalia was an Italian one, but the areas were lumped together when Somalia gained independence in 1960. Thirty-one years later, Somaliland separatists helped to depose the Somali military leader Siad Barre, and they seized on the opportunity to declare independence.
The country, now with a population of roughly six million people, has been operating as an autonomous region ever since. In 2001, voters approved the constitution, establishing a democratic state. Though the functioning of the democracy isn’t perfect, opposition leader Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi won last year’s election and there was a smooth transition of power – not everyone can say that, whether in East Africa or other parts of the world.
However, not a single country has formally recognized Somaliland as a state, drastically limiting what it can achieve financially – it is ineligible for loans from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, even though it is more economically and politically stable than Somalia.
So why is Cruz interested? First, Somaliland’s location gives it strategic importance. It lies along the Gulf of Aden, right next to the narrow Bab al-Mandeb Strait, through which nearly a third of the world’s shipping passes. It is also across the water from Yemen – if the US had a presence in Somaliland, it could keep a closer eye on the anti-American Houthi rebels who operate there.
“Somaliland has emerged as a critical security and diplomatic partner for the United States, helping America advance our national security interests in the Horn of Africa and beyond,” Cruz wrote in his letter.
But this is also about China, which Cruz references in his note. Somaliland’s location also puts it in close proximity to the growing Chinese military presence in Djibouti. What’s more, Somaliland’s own claims to independence mirror those of Taiwan, who have become an ally to the de jure nation – a top Taiwanese official attended Abdullahi’s inauguration in December. With China positioning itself as a defender of Somalia’s overall sovereignty of the area, Cruz – and many of his fellow Republicans – wants to be at the other end of that.
There’s just one problem. Somalia and its neighbors are littered with security issues, with extremist groups like Islamic State and al-Shabaab – both Houthi allies – sowing chaos in the region, and wars raging nearby in Sudan and Ethiopia. If the US recognizes Somaliland, it could undermine efforts to keep a lid on violence in the region.
There are two reasons for this. First, recognition could undermine the Somali state’s attempts to root out extremism – the government is already a weak one, and al-Shabaab would use such a move to recruit more foot soldiers, something the Biden administration feared.
Next, the US might find itself on the sidelines in terms of tackling extremism in the area. Washington has worked closely with Mogadishu to limit threats from militant groups, especially al-Shabaab. If it legally approves of Somaliland’s status as a country, it will anger Somalia – and potentially one or two other states – and potentially push Mogadishu to focus on issues outside of counterterrorism.
On top of all this, there is a melange of interests in the Horn of Africa from some Middle East & North Africa countries that the US won’t want to anger. In particular, Egypt is a major ally to Somalia, and Trump wouldn’t want to dismantle his relationship with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, with whom he shares a close bond.
All to say: it won’t be such a “Cruz” in the park for the US to recognize Somaliland.
Hard Numbers: Civilian killings in the DRC, Musk scraps plans for third party, Swedish church moves to altar-nate site, & More
A member of the M23 rebel group walks on the outskirts of Matanda in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, March 22, 2025.
140: Rwanda-backed rebels killed at least 140 civilians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in July, per Human Rights Watch, and the number could rise to 300. The two sides had seemed on the path to peace after signing a peace deal in the White House in June, but the killings suggest the conflict is far from settled.
30: Eemeli Peltonen, a 30-year-old Finnish Member of Parliament, passed away in the parliament building yesterday. It appears he died by suicide. The death of Peltonen, who was a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party, has shocked the country. He was one of the youngest politicians in the Finnish government.
79: A bus carrying Afghans who had been expelled from Iran crashed in western Afghanistan yesterday, killing 79 people. It was on its way from the border to the capital Kabul. Iran has deported hundreds of thousands of Afghans this year, in part over unsubstantiated claims that they were spying for the Israelis.
$290 million: So much for that third-party idea: Tesla owner Elon Musk is quietly shelving his own plan to fund a third party in the United States. Musk donated over $290 million to Republican campaigns ahead of the 2024 election, but had threatened to create a new party – and inject it with some of his cash – when Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill. It seems he realized he had a mountain to climb.
672: Talk about a pilgrimage! A 133-year-old church in northern Sweden – all 672 tons of it – completed its two-day relocation today, after shifting three miles down the road in the village of Kiruna. Risk of ground subsidence forced the move – the town’s history of iron ore mining meant the church was no longer on terra firma. To achieve the move, the whole building was placed onto a giant trailer and hauled at a steady pace of roughly 550 yards per hour.