Americans are being priced out of homeownership at record rates. Across the US, the costs of purchasing a home are compounding from a lack of new construction since the 2008 financial crisis, the lock-in effect of homeowners unwilling to relinquish low-rate mortgages plus government policies that make buying and building more expensive.

Combine that with mounting losses from climate change-fueled disasters and other burdens of ownership, and more residents are finding themselves on the losing end of what had for years been a solid bet on economic stability and wealth creation. As home sales fall to near-record lows, one of the cornerstones of the American dream is crumbling—and there’s no clear plan for fixing it. —Natasha Solo-Lyons and David E. Rovella

What You Need to Know Today

For the second time in as many weeks, two Republican-appointed appeals court judges cleared the way for controversial Trump administration policies over the dissent of a Democratic-appointed judge. Though not uncommon, these particular 2-1 panel rulings arguably represent momentous victories for Trump, 79, in what his opponents warn is his effort to centralize government power in himself, circumventing the courts, Congress and the US Constitution.

In the first, Trump-appointees Greg Katsas and Neomi Rao threw out a lower court judge’s finding of probable cause to hold administration officials in criminal contempt for sending dozens of men and boys it accused of gang membership (without revealing evidence) to an El Salvador prison—despite his order to halt the deportations. Bloomberg previously reported 90% of the deportees had no US criminal record. It was the highest-profile example among scores of cases in which the administration has been accused of failing to follow court orders, triggering the ongoing crisis in which the ability of American courts to constrain the president has come under question.

Newly arrived Congolese refugees this May in Burundi, where aid from groups like USAID helped with food assistance among an impoverished population. Photographer: Luis Tato/AFP

Today’s 2-1 decision deals with Trump’s effort to slash billions of dollars in foreign aid authorized by Congress. This ruling, by Katsas and Karen LeCraft Henderson, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, while procedural, effectively facilitates Trump’s bid to dissolve the US Agency for International Development and broadly withhold funding from programs he doesn’t like.

His challengers told the judges that Trump’s foreign aid freeze has created a global crisis, and that the money is critical for malaria prevention, to address child malnutrition and provide postnatal care for newborns. According to researchers at Boston University, an estimated 400,000 people—mostly children and infants—are likely to have already died as a result of Trump’s funding cutoff. 

A US economic system built around the ideal of openness and interdependence is facing off against a Chinese counterpart constructed as a fortress of control. Both sides have powerful resources. Only one has been preparing for the fight for decades.

Wall Street traders on Wednesday kept piling into bets that the Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates, with stocks at all-time highs and Treasury yields falling alongside the dollar. Just a day after benign inflation data from an embattled US Bureau of Labor Statistics appeared to spur rallies in bonds and equities, traders fully priced in a quarter-point Fed cut in September. Here’s your markets wrap. 

The end of the local supermarket. Amazon plans to offer same-day grocery delivery in 2,300 cities by the end of the year, more than doubling the current number and marking a major expansion in its effort to compete with traditional grocers. Customers will be able to order perishable items such as produce, dairy, meat, seafood and baked goods, alongside frozen foods and household items.

Polymarket has become the talk of both Silicon Valley and Wall Street. What’s less talked about is that sometimes those outcomes are decided not by objective facts, but by a group of anonymous crypto traders thrashing it out in an online chatroom.

As Polymarket paves the way to return to the US market after three years, the largest platform in prediction markets is facing a growing backlash from users over the messy and sometimes illogical way it resolves its thorniest contracts.

Private equity’s latest financial alchemy is worrying investors. The first time Revelstoke Capital Partners asked investors if it could hold on to Fast Pace Health for longer than usual, they obliged. It was 2020, and a global pandemic had markets on edge. So Revelstoke put a piece of the medical clinic chain into a new fund and found fresh investors to replace those who wanted their money back.

The move allowed some backers to retrieve their cash without forcing the private equity firm to sell at an unattractive price. Structures like this, often called continuation vehicles, or CVs, have since exploded in popularity as private equity firms limp through a dealmaking drought. Their growth is such that some are now creating CVs of CVs—or CV-squareds, as they’re known. Anyone around back in 2008 may recognize this dynamic.

Apple is plotting its artificial intelligence comeback with an ambitious slate of new devices, including robots, a lifelike version of Siri, a smart speaker with a display and home-security cameras. A tabletop robot that serves as a virtual companion, targeted for 2027, is the centerpiece of the AI strategy, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The smart speaker with a display, meanwhile, is slated to arrive next year, part of a push into entry-level smart-home products.

What You’ll Need to Know Tomorrow