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Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Thursday, May 4th,

and this is your FT News Briefing.

Federal Reserve hinted it might take a pause on raising interest rates,

and UK voters head to the polls for local elections. We'll tell you why they matter.

Plus, two drones attacked the Kremlin yesterday. Russia says you cramed it.

It's a very rare admission of Russian vulnerability.

I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day.

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates yesterday, again. It was the 10th time in just over a year.

The Fed lifted its benchmark rate by a quarter of a percentage point, and this increase comes

even though some people are still pretty jittery about mid-sized regional banks after

first Republic had to be rescued earlier this week. Here's how Fed Chair Jay Powell justified

yesterday's move. We're trying to reach and then stay at a level of policy that's

sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation at a 2% over time. I think slowing down was the

right move. I think it's enabled us to see more data, and it will continue to do so.

To talk more about the Fed's decision, I'm joined by the FT's US economics editor, Colby Smith.

Hi, Colby. Hi, Mark. So, Colby, why did the Fed go ahead with this rate rise despite the

instability in the banking sector? So, first and foremost, I do think that they believe the banking

situation is more or less contained. That first Republic, in particular, was really kind of the

last bank to be vulnerable to kind of the worst of the ongoing banking stress.

And then secondly, I think inflation is just still too high. If you look at past economic data

...