Vice President Kamala Harris served up the meat and potatoes of her economic plan yesterday, going beyond the detail-light coconut flakes that have floated around ever since she jumped in the presidential race.

The aspiring Madam President outlined her economic menu while campaigning in North Carolina. Many points took inspiration from President Biden’s policies, but go a step further: That includes a newly proposed $6,000 tax credit for low- and medium-income families with a newborn, and a revival of the expanded child tax credit that was in place in 2021.

Bargains for all!

Much of Harris’s presidential pitch is about helping Americans fulfill their basic needs on the cheap.

Food: Harris promised the “first-ever federal ban” on grocery price gouging, which she blames for rising prices. In her first 100 days in office, regulators would be directed to crack down on companies believed to be hiking prices to gain “excessive” profits.

Shelter: The VP aims to boost housing affordability by promoting the construction of 3 million new units. She promised a tax break to developers of starter homes. She also said she’d lay out $40 billion for local housing initiatives and give first-time homebuyers $25,000 in down-payment assistance.

Medicine: Harris wants to expand the $35 price cap for insulin beyond seniors and crack down on anticompetitive practices in the pharma industry.

These populist proposals from the newly minted Democratic candidate come after her GOP opponent, Donald Trump, made similar proposals to boost the housing supply while his VP pick, JD Vance, called to expand the maximum child tax credit to $5,000.

Wonks react

Many economists welcomed the idea of a homebuilding surge and cheered expanded support for families with children, but parts of Harris’s plan raised eyebrows.

• Some experts worry that downpayment support could undermine affordability by heating up demand.
• Others note that her anti-price-gouging aspirations are built on the highly contested notion that “corporate greed” drives food inflation.

Looking ahead…even if Harris wins the election, many items on her policy wishlist could become reality only with congressional approval.—SK

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Disney-Fox-WB sports streamer blocked over antitrust concerns. A federal judge temporarily halted launch plans for Venu Sports, the new sports streaming service the media giants teamed up to launch. The ruling was a win for rival streamer FuboTV, which sued, saying the media heavyweights’ new competitor would destroy its business. The judge ruled that Fubo would likely succeed in proving its claims that the service would lessen competition. The companies behind Venu said they disagreed with the decision and are appealing. They had planned to debut Venu before the start of the NFL season and to charge consumers $42.99 a month for the service.

Mediators are hoping for a Gaza cease-fire deal next week. After talks toward an agreement for a cease-fire in Gaza and a return of hostages were paused yesterday, the US, Qatar, and Egypt said America had presented a proposal that bridges the gaps between Israel and Hamas. The three mediating countries said they hoped for a deal when negotiations resume next week. However, Hamas, which declined to participate directly in the talks, said the proposal differed from the framework it had previously agreed to in principle. The international push for a deal comes as Palestinian health authorities reported that the war’s death toll had reached more than 40,000. Meanwhile, Israel is bracing for a retaliatory attack from Iran, raising fears of a regional war.

Woman arrested over alleged plot to steal Graceland from Elvis’s family. A 53-year-old Missouri woman was charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft for allegedly orchestrating a plan to steal the family’s interest in the music legend’s Graceland mansion. Prosecutors claim Lisa Jeanine Findley cooked up a phony story that Elvis Presley’s now deceased daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, had used the property as collateral for a loan and didn’t pay it back. The government argues Findley should now be the one singing “Jailhouse Rock.” In May, Elvis’s granddaughter, Riley Keough, convinced a judge to halt a planned foreclosure sale based on the supposed loan, raising questions about whether it had ever existed.

A more dangerous version of the virus formerly known as monkeypox spread outside of Africa for the first time this week, leading European officials to raise the Continent’s risk level from low to moderate.

ICYMI: The World Health Organization declared mpox a global health emergency on Wednesday, about two years after pulling the same alarm on a different variant that infected almost 100,000 people worldwide and 32,000+ in the US, according to the New York Times.

The new version is deadlier and spreading. On Thursday, Sweden reported that a traveler who returned from Africa contracted the variant, and yesterday, Pakistan reported its first case. In Africa, infections have sprung up in at least a dozen countries, in addition to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 15,600 people caught the virus and 537 died from it this year, per the WHO.

The virus appears to spread through skin or fluid contact with another infected person or their items.

Vax news: Danish biotech firm Bavarian Nordic—the only company with an FDA-approved mpox vaccine—submitted data to EU regulators yesterday for approval to use its shot on teens, who account for more than 70% of the cases in Africa, Bavarian’s CEO told CNBC. The vax-maker says it has 300,000 doses ready to ship out and could deliver 10 million by the end of 2025. Its stock soared 50% this week.—ML

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Latvians will be reunited with their beloved Tender Defender once more. EU iPhone users will be able to download Fortnite and an app store made by its developer, Epic Games, nearly four years after Apple kicked the game out of its own app store.

Under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, Apple has to allow iPhone users to download other app stores, like Epic’s. But the game-maker claims Apple is still adding unnecessary steps to the process to dissuade people from downloading it, while Apple says it’s protecting users’ privacy.

• Epic has been beefing with the tech giant since it found a way to skirt Apple’s in-app purchase fees in 2020.
• This started an avalanche of lawsuits, and antitrust regulators in Europe and the US got involved.

In the US, Apple and Epic are still sparring in court over payment methods, but bottom line: You can’t download Fortnite on your iPhone in the US (but you can still play via cloud gaming).

Big picture: Epic is taking on a huge quest trying to unseat Apple from its app store throne, and it’s reportedly courting other big apps to join its fledgling store. But there’s too much money at stake for Apple to just roll over: The company’s service unit (which includes its App Store) brought in $85.2 billion last fiscal year—or 22% of Apple’s total revenue.—MM

Mortgage rates are finally coming down, making owning a home slightly more affordable—but that doesn’t mean the scolds who insist that you’d be able to buy one if you would only give up bougie brunches have been vindicated. In fact, the number of homes across the US that’ll set you back a cool million has hit an all-time high, according to the Wall Street Journal. Redfin found that 8.5% of US homes have an estimated value of $1+ million—up from 7.6% last year and 4% before Covid hit. And in many areas, there’s nothing cheaper to buy. Even if the old money aesthetic is just your usual wardrobe, prices are still sky high: This year has seen six $100+ million home sales so far, putting it just three megadeals away from tying the record set in 2021, per Bloomberg.