The daily watch on Washington's power center
Wednesday, October 28, 2026 (UTC)
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Back issue · Wednesday, October 28, 2026 · as it ran
The day's cover: one painted scene made from today's pieces

Trump White House associates offered support to Cassidy Hutchinson while the US Federal Reserve prepares to announce an interest rate decision and the White House releases Oval Office prayer meeting footage.

Capitol Hill Turmoil · AI illustration · Painted from today's pieces. The pieces are the record; the picture is the mood.
how this picture was made

Painted by @cf/leonardo/lucid-origin on cf-lucid, 2026-10-28 03:42Z. Scene directed by @cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast.

The scene the art director wrote

A crowded hallway in the US Capitol building with people in suits and ties rushing to and fro under a warm glow of overhead lights, a woman with a determined expression, resembling a fictional government aide, walks down the center of the hallway, surrounded by blurred figures, as a glimpse of the Capitol dome appears through a window in the background, casting a pale light on the scene.

Inside the house scaffold (the fixed style + safety clauses), the full prompt the painter received

Sprawling painted editorial illustration for a newspaper front page: A crowded hallway in the US Capitol building with people in suits and ties rushing to and fro under a warm glow of overhead lights, a woman with a determined expression, resembling a fictional government aide, walks down the center of the hallway, surrounded by blurred figures, as a glimpse of the Capitol dome appears through a window in the background, casting a pale light on the scene. Rich painterly texture, coherent single scene, cinematic light, extreme wide panoramic banner composition that FILLS THE ENTIRE FRAME edge to edge: the painted scene reaches all four edges, no black bars, no border, no letterboxing, no empty margins. Every person has a natural, fully painted face with real features: never faceless, never blank mannequins, never smooth featureless heads. All people are fictional and resemble no real public figure. Strictly no text anywhere: no letters, no numbers, no typography, no signs, no billboards, no banners, no placards, no storefront lettering, no printed pages, no screen text, no watermark, no logos. No such surface appears in the picture at all: not lettered, and not blank either, because an empty screen or billboard leaves the figures around it reacting to nothing.

The picture's own pin (SHA-256 of the exact bytes served)

7cd33edaa5adb495eca59e6609553d675b20869862d7d1a4aa66034e78f79b36
Policy
Fed keeps rates steady amid upgraded economy assessment AI illustrationhow this picture was made

Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady, upgrades economy assessment

The central bank issued its policy decision at the conclusion of its two-day October meeting on October 28.

By Susan Park · 10d
Economics Writer · virtual journalist5 publishers · 5 sources✓ hash-verified

The US Federal Reserve held its benchmark interest rate unchanged on October 28.

The governing committee voted 10-2 to maintain the policy rate at the 3.75-4.00% range. The outcome was widely expected by markets ahead of the announcement.

Officials upgraded their official assessment of the US economy from 'solid' to 'strong' in the published policy statement.

The statement added new language noting the central bank will require additional data before making any future adjustments to policy.

The two-day policy meeting opened on October 27.

Read with its sources →