Nightly Brief

Your Wednesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top CNS stories for today including the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates for the first time since the start of the recession more than a decade ago; Americans will soon be able to import lower-cost prescription drugs from foreign countries like Canada as part of a plan unveiled by the Trump administration; Democrats introduced a resolution to roll back a Trump administration rule making it easier for states to waive certain requirements of the Affordable Care Act, and more.

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National

FILE - In this July 10, 2019, file photo Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies before the House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. Powell has signaled that rising economic pressures, notably from President Donald Trump’s trade wars and from a global slowdown, have become cause for concern. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

1.) The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates Wednesday for the first time since the start of the recession more than a decade ago, based on perceived threats to the economy including trade wars, lagging inflation and global growth fears.

Pharmaceuticals are seen in North Andover, Mass. As Congress and the Trump administration aim to curb spiraling drug costs, outside groups like the Alliance for Patient Access are raising their voices as they seek to sway the outcome. But not all of these organizations are clear about who they actually represent. Their names can obscure the source of the message and they’re cagey about where all of their money comes from. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

2.) Americans will soon be able to import lower-cost prescription drugs from foreign countries like Canada as part of a plan unveiled Wednesday by the Trump administration.

In this courtroom artist's sketch, defendant Jeffrey Epstein, center, sits with attorneys Martin Weinberg, left, and Marc Fernich during his arraignment in New York federal court, Monday, July 8, 2019. Epstein pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking charges. The 66-year-old was accused of creating and maintaining a network that allowed him to sexually exploit and abuse dozens of underage girls from 2002 to 2005. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

3.) With no visible bruises that would speak to last week’s reported jail-cell injury, accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein appeared in court Wednesday to prepare for a possible summer 2020 trial.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi defends the Affordable Care Act at the U.S. Capitol in March after the Trump administration told the Fifth Circuit that the entire law should be struck down. (AP file photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

4.) Forcing a vote on health care as the 2020 election season heats up, Democrats introduced a resolution Wednesday to roll back a Trump administration rule making it easier for states to waive certain requirements of the Affordable Care Act, such as coverage for pre-existing conditions.

This 2010 photo provided by the British Antarctic Survey shows emperor penguin chicks at Antarctica's Halley Bay. A study released in 2019 found that since 2016 there were almost no births at Halley Bay, the second biggest breeding ground for emperor penguins. Numbers were booming nearby, but it didn't make up for the losses at this site. (Peter Fretwell/British Antarctic Survey via AP)

5.) Accusing the Trump administration of violating the Endangered Species Act, environmentalists claim in court that the emperor penguin could be extinct within a century if the government doesn’t act quickly to protect it.

File - This Jan. 17, 2017, file photo shows a Facebook logo being displayed in a start-up companies gathering at Paris' Station F, in Paris. A former employee of a Trump-affiliated data-mining firm says it used algorithms that "took fake news to the next level" using data inappropriately obtained from Facebook. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

6.) The Second Circuit dealt a big win to Facebook Wednesday, ruling that online publishers cannot be held accountable for what users post — even if they’re members of a terrorist group.

Science

In this May 24, 2018 photo from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, lava erupts from a fissure in the Leilani Estates neighborhood near Pahoa on the island of Hawaii. Three lava flows from eruptions of Kilauea volcano are now flowing into the ocean off Hawaii's Big Island. Hawaii County officials say the third flow started pouring into the sea Thursday. Lava is spewing from a fissure in a rural community that's feeding the two other flows that are reaching the waves. (Grace Simoneau/FEMA via AP)

7.) Researchers say they may have found a new way to monitor one of the most unpredictable and dangerous aspects of volcano eruptions – where and how magma will flow.

Brad and Sue Wyman paddle their 1930s Old Town Guide canoe along the Androscoggin River on Sept. 27, 2014, north of the White Mountains in Dummer, N.H. The New Hampshire Supreme Court is set to issue its decision in July 2019 on whether a proposal to bring Canadian hydropower through the state should get a new hearing. The court heard arguments in May on Eversource’s bid to revive its Northern Pass transmission line proposal, which was rejected by the state’s Site Evaluation Committee in 2018. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)

8.) A study released Wednesday in the scientific journal Matter offers a biotechnological strategy for purifying microplastics in water systems before the contaminants can enter bodies of water and threaten the health of marine and human life.

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