Behind the scenes, GOP senators are maneuvering to make up for the committee's cash shortfall, with discussions underway to take matters into their own hands to circumvent the NRSC entirely and directly help candidates who need critical resources down the homestretch of the high-stakes campaign, according to multiple GOP sources.

A new fear among Republicans: The NRSC won't be able to bankroll its part to target voters with direct mail and urge them to come to the polls in key battleground states, something that the party committee spent tens of millions of dollars to do during the 2020 cycle.

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McConnell, meanwhile, has been on the phone with big donors for the past several weeks -- going well beyond his traditional call list -- in an effort to ensure his high-spending super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, is flush with cash to spend huge sums on TV ads in battleground states in the campaign's final two months, one senior GOP source said.

It was the first time since January that those rates were reduced, and comes as other major central banks are in hiking mode, my CNN Business colleague Laura He reports.

The move took investors by surprise. The central bank previously appeared reluctant to lower rates further amid concerns about rising debt levels, consumer inflation and pressure on the yuan, even as the economy stalled between April and June.

But fresh data published Monday was much worse than expected. Retail sales grew 2.7% in July from a year ago, slowing from June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 5% increase. Industrial production also ticked down month-over-month and missed market forecasts.

Chinese authorities began reopening the country's economy at the start of June, feeding hopes among foreign investors that President Xi Jinping could be easing his strict "zero-Covid" policy. But multiple cities quickly reimposed coronavirus curbs. Nomura found that 41 cities implemented lockdown measures by July 18, up from 31 cities the previous week.

"We have also seen many of those discretionary dollars flow away from goods to services, especially travel," he added.

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Shah said customers have been trading down to cheaper options and Wayfair has been increasing promotions to spur demand.

Wayfair's stock has plunged more than 60% this year, while RH shares have lost 45% and Bed Bath & Beyond is down 57%. Williams-Sonoma, which also includes West Elm and Pottery Barn, has dropped 13%.

Boeing in January disclosed a $3.5 billion charge due to 787 delivery delays and customer concessions, and another $1 billion in abnormal production costs stemming from production flaws and related repairs and inspections.

Wages and salaries for civilian workers increased 1.4% in the second quarter and 5.3% over the year ending in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Employment Cost Index, released Friday. Both measures show swifter growth than in the first quarter.

The 12-month jump was the highest since the spring of 1983, though the quarterly change did not surpass the 1.5% increase in the fall of 2021.

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However, the picture is not as rosy once inflation is taken into account. Wages and salaries declined 3.5% over the past year, after adjusting for rising prices.

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That's just a touch better than the 3.6% drop for the year ending in March, which was the largest decrease since the bureau began keeping inflation-adjusted records in 2001.

The Swiss bank has dubbed 2022 a "transition" year with a change of guard, restructuring aimed at curtailing risk-taking in investment banking, and bulking up of wealth management, while batting away speculation that it could be acquired or broken up.

A new strategic review announced on Wednesday, the bank's second in less than a year, will evaluate options for its securitised products business to attract third-party capital, while reaffirming its commitment to asset management.

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Koerner, 59, is considered a restructuring expert in Switzerland and will succeed CEO Thomas Gottstein on Aug. 1.

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Koerner ran UBS (UBS) Asset Management from 2014 to 2019 and served as adviser to the CEO from 2019 to 2020. He was also previously a senior executive at Credit Suisse (CS) Financial Services and ran the Swiss business.

Gottstein has had a tumultuous two-year tenure punctuated by massive losses and even a conviction for the bank, and a 40% plunge in its shares.

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Ice cream in a waffle cone with toppings is not all that innovative. But ice cream in a taco shell — that was a game changer, according to inventor Alan Drazen.

"When you eat a sugar cone, you generally eat the nuts, chocolate, and ice cream on the top," Drazen told Eater. "With the Choco Taco you're getting the ice cream, cone, nuts, and chocolate with just about every bite."

For many, the Choco Taco conjures long-ago memories of biting into a cold, sweet treat on a hot summer's day. Others may have more recent memories, especially because Taco Bell -— which used to sell the product years ago — brought it back to some stores for a limited time earlier this year.

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Not all hope is lost, however. Some notable fans are already trying to figure out ways to resurrect the Choco Taco.

"I'd like to buy the rights to your Choco Taco and keep it from melting away from future generations' childhoods," Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian tweeted at Unilever, Klondike's parent company. Patrick Shriver responded that he'd "go in on this."

In their roles as consumers, investors and members of the workforce, ordinary Americans have the sense that the country is at an economic inflection point, but without a clear picture of what happens next, nor how to prepare.

Conventional wisdom is that a recession is characterized by two metrics moving in the opposite direction for a sustained period: Economic output falls, and unemployment rises. That's not what's happening now -- not exactly, anyway.

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"If you're not a little confused about the economy, you're not paying attention," Harvard economist and former White House economic adviser Jason Furman tweeted last week.

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Companies are hiring, but output is dropping. Consumers are pessimistic about what lies ahead, but they keep spending. The economy zigged when it was supposed to zag, and even the professionals are searching for answers.

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MetaX is seeking an injunction ordering Facebook's parent company to cease the use of the Meta name in connection with products, services or activities related to virtual, augmented or extended reality, as well as unspecified damages, according to the complaint.

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Representatives for the Facebook parent company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

MetaX LLC, which was founded in 2010, creates immersive installations and activations incorporating AR and VR, visuals, sound and other technologies at events such as Coachella and SXSW — the likes of which Facebook-turned-Meta now seeks to do to promote its new strategy, the lawsuit claims. MetaX says it has also worked with popular digital artists such as Beeple, and claims its work has "laid the foundations for the developing, although not yet fully existent, 'metaverse.'"

Now, Asia's third largest economy is ready for the next big frontier in tech: Coming up with a new generation of software companies like Zoom or Slack.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced business around the world to make huge investments in digital infrastructure, furthering the influence of companies providing software-as-a-service, or SaaS. Businesses spent an extra $15 billion per week last year on tech as they scrambled to create safe remote working environments, according to a KPMG survey.

Despite investors' gloom, the worst of the bear market is at hand. Of course, stock prices are sure to go up and down in coming days and weeks. And though they will not come roaring back anytime soon, the downdraft in prices is nearly over.

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Looking out on the next five years — the shortest horizon prudent for stocks given their volatility, and thus risk — annual stock returns in the mid-single digits seem likely. Sure, these aren't the double-digit returns of the two decades since the dot-com bubble burst, but they are solid returns nonetheless.

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My optimism reflects the view that stock investors have internalized a stark reality: To combat high inflation, the Federal Reserve will have to raise rates aggressively in the months ahead. Fed officials have made it clear they plan to double the federal funds rate, the interest rate they directly control, by early next year. If they follow through as investors widely expect, the funds rate ultimately will be at its highest point since before the financial crisis that occurred well over a decade ago.

A key natural gas pipeline linking Russia to Germany has been shut down for the past 10 days for routine maintenance. And there's a decent chance, according to European officials, the Russian state-owned gas company will simply refuse to resume deliveries tomorrow when the maintenance is supposed to wrap up.

"Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon," said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

That pipeline, called Nord Stream 1, is a vital artery linking Russia's gas reserves to Europe via Germany. It delivers nearly 40% of the bloc's total pipeline imports from Russia, my colleague Anna Cooban writes.

Already, Russia has shown it is willing to weaponize its energy supplies, cutting off some countries because they refused to pay their bills in rubles (which would violate European sanctions). And last month, Russia cut flows through the pipeline by 60%, blaming the West's sanctions.

President Vladimir Putin said this week that Russia would "fulfill all of its obligations" in supplying gas to Europe. But, like, it's Putin — no one knows what to actually expect.

It's no secret that investors have been in a dour mood as concerns about the rapid withdrawal of support from central banks and the growing possibility of a global recession stoke alarm.

But the latest survey of global fund managers from Bank of America, published Tuesday, reveals a "dire level of investor pessimism."

Expectations for global growth are at an all-time low, while levels of cash on hand haven't been this high since September 11. Allocation of money to stocks hasn't been so thin since the 2008 financial crisis.

What it means: To some, this may actually be a signal to start buying risky assets like stocks again. Investors watch for a moment known as "capitulation," when sentiment is so bearish that it can't possibly get any worse. That indicates the bottom of the sell-off could be close.

"Sentiment says stocks/credit rally in coming weeks," said Michael Hartnett, chief investment strategist at Bank of America.

Gasoline prices in the United States have dropped back down to an average of $4.52 a gallon after hitting record highs above $5 a gallon one month ago.

The White House is betting they have more room to fall, a positive side effect of global recession fears.

"I expect it to come down more towards $4," Amos Hochstein, the special presidential coordinator for international energy affairs, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "And we already have many gas stations around the country that are below $4."

Hochstein — who joined President Joe Biden when he visited with Saudi leaders last week — hinted that Gulf states could announce a boost in production in the coming weeks, easing supply constraints.

"Based on what we heard on the trip, I'm pretty confident that we'll see a few more steps in the coming week," he said.

But forecasting oil prices for the rest of the year remains a difficult gambit. Europe is hunting for replacements for Russian barrels. If China eases its strict efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19, demand for crude from the world's biggest importer could jump, further squeezing markets. And it's not clear countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will ultimately tap their spare capacity, which is limited.

Watch this space: Global oil prices finished last week at roughly $101 a barrel, 27% below their March high. They remain volatile, however. On Monday, they climbed 2%, rising back above $103 per barrel

How these nations respond may be stirring up an even greater problem than rising prices.

Under pressure from the public, governments and politicians may be tempted to turn back toward cheaper, dirtier forms of energy such as coal, regardless of the effect on climate change.

And there are signs this may already have started.

In Australia, the federal government's Energy Security Board has proposed that all electricity generators, including coal-fired ones, be paid to keep extra capacity in the national grid in a bid to prevent power outages. And the government of New South Wales has used emergency powers to redirect coal from mines in the state to local generators rather than overseas.

Both measures have come in for criticism from those who accuse the government of betraying its commitment to renewable energy.

In India, a country of 1.3 billion people that relies on coal for about 70% of its energy generation, New Delhi's decision to increase coal imports is likely to have even more profound environmental effects.

Scientists say a drastic reduction in coal mining is necessary to limit the worst effects of global warming, yet this will be hard to achieve without the buy-in of one of the world's biggest carbon emitters.

WHAT MATTERS: It seems to me like communications -- text messages and phone calls -- would be a bigger tool for prosecutors if they were going after somebody seeking an abortion or somebody helping facilitate one. Is that a separate issue, or is that wrapped up into this?

CAHN: Oh, that's all part of a threat modeling here. When we look at the constellation of risks, some of it comes from scraping massive amounts of data from Google, from social media companies and even from Apple. But a large part of it is simply looking at the text messages we send.

We continue to see people being reported to police by family, by friends, for seeking abortion services. It's quite common in American courtrooms to see emails, text messages, even encrypted messages being read back into the transcript to be used against us.

Encrypting your communications can help reduce the risk, but you know, using the most secure platforms like Signal and also setting up messages to automatically delete is an even more effective safeguard.

What will spark an abortion investigation?

WHAT MATTERS: From your report, I learned about the importance of non-state actors. You talked about family members informing on people and activists tracking license plates. It's not my impression that in states that ban abortion there will be an abortion police out there actively searching for this. It takes these activist groups to tee it up. Is that right? Or is that a misread?

CAHN: I think that it is both. So I think that's correct today, but I fear that we will see designated abortion policing units in the future. Certainly during Roe, even in its waning days, we saw states relying extensively on private bounty hunters and activists to enforce abortion bans.

Famously in the case of SB 8 in Texas, the state turned to private companies, because it was unconstitutional under Roe for them to engage in that sort of anti-abortion policing themselves.

But it's unclear in a world where the police can prosecute those seeking care directly whether we'll see less of a focus on those private bounty hunters and private activist groups.

In the early hours of April 30, 2019, opposition leader Guaidó, his political mentor Leopoldo Lopez, and a handful of Venezuelan army officials gathered outside a military base calling for the Venezuelan Army's top brass to remove Maduro from power.

Within a few hours, the rebellion had been violently repressed, and Maduro's power restored. Nevertheless, over 50 countries -- including the United States -- insisted on formally recognizing Guaidó as the country's legitimate leader, criticizing the elections that had cemented Maduro's power as undemocratic.

Maduro himself has described the movement as an attempted coup driven by "the obsessive efforts of the Venezuelan right, the Colombian oligarchy and the US empire."

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More than three years have now passed since those frenzied hours when Venezuela seemed on the cusp of change. The US still does not recognize Maduro due to his government's alleged violations of human rights, but has not recently called to remove him from power.

Just last month, two White House officials met with Maduro in Caracas to negotiate the release of several US citizens detained in Venezuela in exchange for sanctions relief.

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"We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery," Taylor added. It does not appear that a formal suit has yet been filed.

Meanwhile, Twitter (TWTR) stock tanked on the news of the dispute, closing down more than 11% on Monday — nearly 40% below Musk's deal price, suggesting deep skepticism about the deal going through. Many analysts have suggested that Musk may be trying to use the bot issue as a pretext to get out of a deal that appears overpriced in light of the recent market downturn. Tesla (TSLA) shares, which Musk is planning to use in part to finance the deal, have also fallen in recent weeks.

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