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🎧 Democrats have called it a dark day, stating that the bill will harm Americans who rely on public broadcasting and damage the U.S.'s reputation as a global leader, NPR’s Deirdre Walsh tells Up First. The overall package was slimmed down from $9.4 billion by removing a proposed $400 million cut to PEPFAR, a global public health program created to combat HIV and AIDS that both Republicans and Democrats argue has been successful. Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, one of two Republican senators who voted against the rescission, cited an emergency alert from an Alaska public radio station Wednesday afternoon as an example of what is at stake if stations lose federal money. 

🎧 NPR’s Deepa Shivaram says Trump could fire Powell, but only if there’s legitimate cause, such as fraud. The Supreme Court ruled in May that the president could fire heads of independent agencies without cause, but it put the Fed in a different category, calling it a “uniquely structured, quasi-private entity.” Paul Schiff Berman, a law professor at George Washington University, says it’s possible the Supreme Court would go along with whatever cause Trump could provide for firing Powell. However, Berman says he thinks the damage has already been done to keep the Federal Reserve an independent entity.

🎧 Israel says it hit Syrian military positions to support militias from the Druze minority in a battle that’s unfolding in Sweida in southern Syria. Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has accused Israel of sowing division and trying to turn his country into a theater of chaos. NPR’s Ruth Sherlock says that Israel’s decision to intervene is deeply strategic. Israel doesn’t trust al-Sharaa’s government, which is Islamist and doesn’t want its Syrian army to get closer to the Israeli border.