The Daily Brief
Today
Good morning. Volkswagen bosses announced plans to slash a further 50,000 jobs under a so-called transformation plan, sending shares higher. The cuts land alongside an August jobs report expected to show another month of soft hiring, just one month after the labor market contracted by 23,000 jobs, while shoppers weather elevated inflation and central bankers weigh a possible interest rate hike.
Diesel hit a record $5.85 a gallon Friday, eclipsing its prior mark of $5.81 set in June 2022. The surge comes on Friday, driven by the war in Iran pushing costs past the 2022 peak set after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, compounding the squeeze on workers already facing soft hiring and potential rate hikes.
The Iran war drags on with only a small handful of Republicans in Congress showing any interest in constraining the president's war authority. Most are perfectly happy to let him continue fighting without Congress' sign-off. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is declaring war on voting by mail as the primary means of sabotaging and stealing the November midterms.
Regulators in Colorado knew a marijuana product was harming people but kept it on shelves for more than a year. The Education Department gathers a massive tranche of civil rights data about public school students; it is now available but harder to parse than in the past. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton campaigned while wearing a very expensive watch, some political observers believe.