Federal Reserve Interest Rates, Reports Reveal Iran War Costs, Kennedy Center Closure

The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates for the first time in three years as the Iran war pushes inflation higher and borrowing costs are already climbing.
Two new government reports put the cost of the Iran war at more than $30 billion and reveal extensive damage to U.S. bases and growing strain on key weapons stockpiles.
The Kennedy Center board voted to close the building for renovations after a federal judge again blocked President Trump’s name from being added, while Trump says he will not move ahead unless that changes.

Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.

Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Rafael Nam, Andrew Sussman, Steve Drummond, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.

It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Nia Dumas.

Our director is Christopher Thomas.

We get engineering support from Zac Coleman.

Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.

And our Supervising Producer is Michael Lipkin.

(0:00) Introduction
(01:54) Federal Reserve Interest Rates
(05:29) Reports Reveal Iran War Costs
(09:36) Kennedy Center Closure