US interest rates have been slashed for the first time in more than four years – by more than many expected – amid fears the world’s largest economy is flagging.

The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, brought interest rates down by 0.5 percentage points to 4.75% to 5%.

Unlike the UK, the US interest rate is a range to guide lenders rather than a single percentage.

Read more: What next for interest rates?

Bringing down inflation to 2% is a primary goal of the Fed and it has used interest rates to draw money out of the economy by making borrowing more costly since 2022, when the Ukraine/Russia price shock hit.

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Recent figures show the Fed is not far from its inflation target – with the main measure hitting 2.5% in August, the lowest rate in three years.

But signs of a weakening economy emerged last month as data on job creation led to recession fears.

The Fed signalled in its statement that while it was confident on both the inflation and growth outlooks, a slowdown in the pace of hiring was a cause for concern.

Only one member of its rate-setting committee dissented on the 0.5 percentage point reduction. Financial market participants had been split on whether it would go for the 0.25 option instead.

US stocks rallied in the wake of the decision, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and broader S&P 500 both up by more than 0.5% from flat positions moments before the rate decision was revealed.

The dollar was trading a cent lower versus sterling at $1.32.

Some market analysts said the Fed’s move showed Fed chair Jay Powell and his fellow policymakers had been too slow to react to the employment slowdown.

He told reporters: “We’re going to be making decisions meeting by meeting, based on the incoming data and the evolving outlook, the balance of risks… it’s a process of recalibrating our policy stance away from where we had it a year ago, when inflation was high and unemployment low, to a place that’s more appropriate given where we are now and where we expect to be.

“That process will time time”, he added, saying there would be no “rush”.

Michael Sheehan, fund manager of fixed income at EdenTree Investment Management, said: “Kicking off this cutting cycle with a 50 basis point reduction will undoubtedly vindicate those who had argued that the Fed had fallen behind the curve.

“Any doubts that this cutting cycle would be any less dramatic than previous ones have been firmly laid to rest.

“We expect this larger cut of 50 basis points to boost risk assets in the short term. The key for markets, and indeed the Federal Reserve, will be how far the softening of the labour market has to run.

“Powell will be hoping that taking aggressive action early will go some way to curtailing a substantial weakening and achieve the elusive soft landing.”

What about the UK?

It comes as the UK central bank the Bank of England meets on Thursday to make its own interest rate decision.

While the Bank will focus on UK economic data – and on Wednesday afternoon was expected by markets to hold rates – it could be influenced by US decision-making.

Lower interest rates tend to weaken currencies, so a big cut from the Fed could be good news for the pound.

While being able to buy more dollars is good news for people holidaying in the US and paying for imports like oil, it’s bad news for exporters who get less for their goods as a result and have a less competitive product.

Lower exports can slow inflation, meaning the Bank could be more likely to cut.

Harvey Weinstein has appeared in court over a new sex crime charge, accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel in New York in 2006.

The new indictment against the disgraced producer was first announced last week, just days after he underwent emergency heart surgery at a hospital in Manhattan to remove fluid on his heart and lungs.

Prosecutors did not give further details at the time, but said new charges were not part of the case that led to his now-overturned landmark #MeToo conviction in 2020.

Appearing in court in Manhattan in a wheelchair on Wednesday, Weinstein pleaded not guilty to a new first-degree felony charge.

He wore a dark suit and a blue tie, with a large bandage on his right hand, and responded emphatically when asked for his plea. “Not guilty.”

Weinstein, 72, has always maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.

The new indictment accuses the former movie mogul of forcing a sex act on a woman at some point between 29 April and 6 May 2006, in a hotel in downtown Manhattan.

He is also charged with a criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree, in relation to a previous New York State Supreme Court indictment, Manhattan’s district attorney Alvin Bragg Jr said. Weinstein has also pleaded not guilty to these charges.

“Thanks to this survivor who bravely came forward, Harvey Weinstein now stands indicted for an additional alleged violent sexual assault,” Mr Bragg said. “This investigation is ongoing. If you have been sexually assaulted, I assure you that our team of dedicated prosecutors, investigators, social workers, and many more stand at the ready to support you.”

No details about the accuser involved in the new charge have been released.

“She will be fully prepared to speak her truth at trial to hold Mr Weinstein accountable before a jury of his peers,” her lawyer, Lindsay Goldbrum, said in a statement.

Why was Weinstein’s original conviction overturned?

As well as this, Weinstein is also facing a retrial over his 2020 rape and sexual assault conviction, which was overturned by New York’s highest court in a landmark ruling in April.

The Court of Appeals ruled he did not get a fair trial as the judge who presided over the hearing had unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case.

Weinstein had been serving a 23-year prison sentence at the time. Despite the conviction being overturned, he has remained in custody due to another conviction last year, for the rape of an actress in Los Angeles in 2013.

The retrial is scheduled to start on 12 November, subject to possible delay due to the new indictment.

Prosecutors have said they will seek to include the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein’s lawyers say there should be a separate case.

Meanwhile, earlier in September, prosecutors in the UK dropped two charges of indecent assault brought in 2022, saying there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction”.

Once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, Weinstein co-founded the film and television production companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company, and produced films such as the Oscar-winning Shakespeare In Love, Pulp Fiction, and The Crying Game.

A judge agreed last week to let Weinstein remain indefinitely in the prison ward at Bellevue Hospital instead of being transferred back to the infirmary ward at New York’s Rikers Island jail complex.

“It’s a dangerous business being president,” Donald Trump said to rapturous applause inside the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan.

This was his first public appearance since his golf course became a crime scene on Sunday afternoon.

He was being questioned by a fawning interviewer in Sarah Huckabee Sanders, his former press secretary and now the governor of Arkansas.

“Mr President, nobody’s ever seen anything like it,” she said, inviting him to retell what happened when he heard shots ring out from between holes five and six at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida.

“I have to say, Secret Service did a hell of a job,” he said. “One of the agents was walking a couple of holes in front and he saw a rifle.”

Trump then joked that a woman who witnessed the suspect running and took photos of his vehicle did so because “women are smarter than men”.

Secret Service agents, who were flanking both sides of the stage as he retold the tale, stared intently into the stands of the arena, scanning for danger.

At one point, Trump excitedly asked the agent who spotted the suspected gunman to identify himself to the crowd, but quickly decided better of it.

Trump had previously, and without evidence, blamed the “rhetoric” of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for inspiring the apparent would-be assassin.

But that sort of finger-pointing was absent on Tuesday evening.

Instead, he was almost gushing as he told the crowd about phone conversations he had with the president and vice president over the past couple of days.

“President Biden was so nice,” Trump said. “I do feel he’s so, so nice.”

About Harris, he said: “I got a very nice call from Kamala. It was very nice. It was very nice.” Some in the crowd shouted out “she’s a liar”, but Trump shook his head.

I ask Brian Menasco, from nearby Columbiaville, if he thinks it was a concerted effort by Trump to lower the political temperature.

“I think so,” he says. “I’ve wanted him to do that since 2016. He’s amazing but sometimes I think ‘why has he said that’.”

Trump was scheduled to appear in Flint, Michigan, before the apparent assassination attempt – but the venue was no accident.

He won Michigan in 2016 but lost it to Joe Biden four years later. If he is to get back into the White House, he must win over voters in key swing states like this.

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Flint, about an hour’s drive northwest of Detroit, is known for a man-made water crisis in 2014.

Lead contaminated the drinking supply here, killing at least a dozen people, poisoning many more and leaving part of the population still traumatised 10 years later.

It’s also known as “vehicle city”, its economy shaped by the auto industry and shattered by its decline.

The North Dort Highway, though, is still peppered with garages selling car parts, others fixing vintage motors and a couple of yards buying and selling scrap metal.

Read more:
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Five unanswered questions about apparent assassination attempt

At Trevor’s Tires, I find Gary Grundy with his friends loading several tyres into the boot of his SUV.

Gary is an independent voter and says there is a shared responsibility of both the Republican and Democratic parties to tone down the rhetoric.

“When I heard, I was like, that’s two attempts on his life, that’s kind of crazy,” he said.

“But the talk on both sides needs to be dialled down. When they said people were in Ohio eating cats and dogs, now they’ve got school bomb attempts and all that.

“So the rhetoric on both sides needs to calm down, it’s collective responsibility.”

Kristin Martinez, a Trump voter, says the Democrats should shoulder some responsibility for the attempts on Trump’s life.

“I really do think that they are responsible for, you know, maybe not calling out somebody to do it, but, you know, their words triggered somebody.”

But even with a nod from Trump to civility from across the political aisle, with 49 days to go until the election and the race intensifying, the potential for political violence persists.