From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle.

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening and welcome to the Tangle podcast, a place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take.

I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about Graham Platner and some of the controversies surrounding the Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine. I'm going to share some views

from the left and the right and some views from Maine columnists. And then I'm going to share my take.

Before you jump in, a quick heads up that tomorrow we are publishing that response piece to what I

wrote last week. The story titled, yes, Things Are Actually Pretty Bad Right Now. Tomorrow,

in another member-only edition, we are running a response to that piece from Associate Editor

Audrey Moorhead. She's going to be making the case that Trump isn't the only one to blame,

that the current political climate is a direct result of the cultural and institutional dominance of the left. I think it's a really good piece. I've read a draft of it. We're still working on it. And we're going to publish that on the website and then she'll probably do a readdown of it here on the podcast. So keep an ear out for that. And it'll be worth your time, I hope. All right. With that, I'm going to send it over to John for today's main topic and it'll be worth your time i hope all right with that i'm going to

send it over to john for today's main topic and i'll be back for my take

thanks isaac and welcome everybody here are your quick hits for today first up president President Donald Trump met with President Xi Jinping, and the two reached an agreement to lower U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports in exchange for a promise from China to crack down on the trade of chemicals used to make fentanyl, ease exports of rare earth minerals, and buy U.S. soybeans. Shortly before the meeting, President Trump

ordered the Pentagon to resume nuclear weapons testing on an equal basis, alluding to other

country's nuclear programs. Number two, the Federal Reserve voted to lower the benchmark

federal funds rate by 25 basis points to a range of 3.75 to 4 percent, the second rate cut in 2025.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the current outlook for employment and inflation

appears similar to September when the central bank voted to cut rates for the first time.

Number three, more than 30 deaths have been attributed to Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, Haiti,

and the Dominican Republic, as rescue operations continue. The hurricane was downgraded to a

Category 2 storm and is moving toward Bermuda as of Thursday morning. Number four, the Senate

voted 50 to 46 to advance a resolution to repeal tariffs on Canadian imports imposed by President

Trump using emergency powers.

Four Republicans joined all voting Democrats in support of the measure, which now moves to the House.

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