American officials scramble to avoid the ouster of U.S. forces from the junta-led West African country.

The United States is now the 23rd happiest country in the world, according to the annual World Happiness Report, falling out of the top 20 in the global index for the first time due largely to discontented Americans in their twenties.

But nobody bothered to talk to any members of the Morning Dispatch team—the cheeriest 20-somethings around—when they were compiling the data.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday held its benchmark interest rate steady—at a range of 5.25 to 5.5 percent—following a higher-than-expected inflation reading earlier this month. “We know that reducing policy restraint too soon or too much could result in a reversal of the progress we have seen on inflation and ultimately require even tighter policy to get inflation back to 2 percent,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters following the decision. The stock market rallied, however, after updated projections from the central bank showed a majority of Federal Open Markets Committee members forecasting three rate cuts in 2024.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule on Wednesday limiting vehicle tailpipe emissions in an effort to push manufacturers toward electric vehicles. The new regulations target light-duty vehicles—like cars and SUVs—and require manufacturers to limit how many pollutants cars in model years 2027-2032 can emit. The rule, while aggressive, is less stringent than the agency’s original April 2023 proposal, which would have required some 60 percent of all vehicles in the 2030 model year to be electric. The final rule issued this week, however, would likely see some 30 to 40 percent of the 2030 pool be EVs, depending on the level of emissions from the other cars in the model year.