Axios

The Federal Reserve left its interest rate target unchanged Wednesday amid significant internal dissent from officials who preferred to raise rates.

The big picture: The central bank elected not to surprise markets with an interest rate hike, contrary to rampant speculation on Wall Street in recent days. But three members of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee did favor raising the cost of borrowing.

The Senate unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday declaring that Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker who aided Jeffrey Epstein's abuse of underage girls, should never receive a presidential pardon.

Why it matters: Democrats wanted to put every Republican senator on record as opposed to a potential pardon.

OpenAI is launching a new program Wednesday that will provide 100,000 academic researchers with free access to its advanced AI models through 2027, the company told Axios ahead of the announcement.

Why it matters: The program could help scientists, mathematicians and engineers pursue the kind of breakthroughs that OpenAI and other AI companies say the technology could enable.