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August 20, 2026 Your first month is free in The New York Times app. Download now → By Sam Sifton Good morning. America’s gross national debt topped $40 trillion for the first time yesterday. And Prince Harry and Meghan are moving back to Britain. There’s plenty more news below. But first, I want to turn things over to my colleague Jodi Rudoren for a look at a new study about Americans’ use of cannabis. Janelle Jones for The New York Times High anxiety By Jodi Rudoren I never take drugs at work. For the last few years, I’ve been trying to develop a casual weed habit. Like many of my over-50 friends, I’d been finding that even a single cocktail or a glass of wine with dinner gave me a headache the next morning. Plus, I prefer not to drink my calories. With marijuana now legal for recreational use in half the country, why not experiment? I started with a vape but kept forgetting to use it. Then last summer I dabbled in THC seltzer — refreshing, low-cal and a nice little buzz. A couple of months ago, after a detailed consult at a dispensary, I walked away with a tincture for my arthritic feet, some gummies for play and other gummies for sleep. Those work — and don’t leave me groggy when I get up at 5 to go to the gym. So it was distressing to learn yesterday that a growing number of Americans are developing cannabis use disorders — that’s health care speak for addiction or abuse. A national study found that 9 percent of American men and nearly 6 percent of women reported symptoms of the disorder in 2024, up from about 7 percent of men and 5 percent of women. Some people with the disorder can’t quit. Others can’t even cut back. And some keep doing the drug despite it hurting their relationships. The main reason for the spike, experts say, is that a lot of weed now contains much higher doses of THC. “The notion that cannabis is not addictive may basically be incorrect,” said Dr. Nora D. Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the paper’s senior author. “The higher the content of the drug, the higher the risk for addiction.” By the numbers Jim Wilson/The New York Times Usage: In 2024, 26 percent of men in the United States reported using cannabis, up from 22 percent in 2021. Among women, it was 21 percent in 2024, up from 18. It’s highest, unsurprisingly, among those ages 21 to 34 — 37 percent of those men and nearly 34 percent of the women report using marijuana in 2024. That still pales in comparison to alcohol — more than half of Americans drink at least occasionally. Abusage: What’s alarming is that the rate of problematic use is higher than with alcohol. Of those who said they use cannabis, about 30 percent showed symptoms of the disorder; among the drinkers, it’s less than 20 percent. (Alcohol abuse is still a larger problem overall, affecting nearly 13 percent of men and 8 percent of women.) My people: Women over 50 showed the biggest spike in cannabis use over the three years of the study — it jumped 40 percent between 2021 and 2024. (We’re still the lowest consumers of cannabis, though; about 13 percent reported using the drug. Just under 60 percent said they drink alcohol.) Behind the numbers I talked to Lori Leibovich, who runs our Well desk, about what this all means. The jump in use is no surprise, she said, given that cannabis has become legal in more places at the exact same time that scientists are finding more and more connections between drinking and deadly diseases like cancer. Some groups say there’s no safe amount of alcohol, Lori told me. Weed has also been linked to increased risk of stroke or heart attack, as well as memory loss, though studies also suggest it can reduce pain. I know a lot of menopausal women reaching for gummies to relieve stress or help with sleep. We’re in that sandwich-generation moment, caring for aging parents and cranky teenagers alongside our careers and fitness regimens, and we can’t waste even an hour in the morning recovering from a hangover. The problem, Lori pointed out, is that we have grown up believing marijuana is not addictive, because it’s natural. That may have been true back at Woodstock, but the weed that people are smoking or swallowing now is up to 15 times stronger. And while there are a lot of rehab programs for alcohol addiction, resources for cannabis crises are scarce. Addiction, memory loss, stroke. Maybe it’s OK that I keep forgetting to use that vape. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Jennifer Hegseth and Pete Hegseth. Doug Mills/The New York Times Jennifer Hegseth, the wife of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has taken an unusually active role at the Pentagon, advising on communications and attending meetings with foreign officials. Republicans in deep red Wyoming rejected hard-right candidates in this week’s primaries, including a candidate for governor backed by President Trump. A series of losses by Trump-endorsed candidates has raised questions about the president’s control over the party. The Economy Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and U.S. Office of Management and Budget | Note: Data is seasonally adjusted | By The New York Times The United States’ gross national debt keeps piling up as the government borrows to cover military spending, social programs and tax cuts. The Treasury Department calmed a jittery bond market by doubling the amount of its own debt that it can buy back from investors. Changes to student loan repayment rules will force some borrowers to pay more, and for a longer term. Health An experimental mRNA vaccine prevented the return and spread of skin cancer in high-risk patients, the pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Merck said. Trump nominated Dr. Heidi Overton, a White House aide and MAHA proponent, to serve as the next F.D.A. commissioner. A former adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci pleaded guilty to conspiring to hide records related to the origins of the coronavirus. The D.E.A. joined the investigation into the death of Hayden Panettiere, who died of an apparent drug overdose. Data Centers Voters across the country are using recall campaigns to oust local officials who approved massive data centers. Loudoun County in Virginia hosts more than 250 data centers. In the video below, Cecilia Kang, who covers technology and regulatory policy, describes how the A.I. boom is affecting the county, known as the “data center capital of the world.” Click to watch. The New York Times The Middle East The U.A.E. said it was cutting off all trade and financial transactions with Iran. The U.S. Navy has been running a stealth operation to guide oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Here’s how it works. The Israeli military has opened criminal investigations into the killings of Hind Rajab, a young Palestinian girl, and more than a dozen medical workers during the war in Gaza. Iran and the United States have settled into an uneasy, in-between state that risks either a return to fighting or a hardening stalemate. Around the World Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Daniel Leal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images It’s unclear where Prince Harry, Meghan and their children will live or what they will do when they return to Britain after six years in the United States. Here’s a timeline of their departure and planned return. Russia stepped up its air campaign, taking advantage of Ukraine’s lack of defensive missiles. Overnight strikes on Kyiv killed at least 13 people. The sister of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, dismissed Trump’s decision to scale back major military exercises with South Korea, saying the reduced exercises were still “provocative and aggressive.” OPINIONS Trump’s election meddling is eroding American democracy, the editorial board argues. They’ve analyzed 12 benchmarks, like declaring false emergencies, to keep an eye on. The essayist Will McGrath road-tripped with his family this summer to visit cemeteries throughout the Midwest. It’s a special way to recognize your own ephemerality, he writes. Free this week: Play all 3 Crosswords. You can access every new crossword puzzle through August 23. Whether you have seconds or 60 minutes, there’s a puzzle for everyone. Start solving today. MORNING READS Maria-Ines Gul We’ve made these links free for you. Famous last words: One Times obituaries writer is skeptical of them, but admits that some are too good to be disregarded. Take the playwright Eugene O’Neill’s: “I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room and — goddamn it — dying in a hotel room!” Read more dubitable examples here. Grumpy old man: A German grandpa who complains about matcha has became a social media sensation among young Germans. How did he go from heartbroken widower to partying on a yacht? Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about the presidential aide Natalie Harp. Hip-hop cop: Derrick Parker’s love of rap music and deep knowledge of New York’s music and celebrity scene made him the N.Y.P.D.’s go-to expert for crimes involving entertainers like Sean Combs, Jennifer Lopez and Lil’ Kim. He died at 65. TODAY’S NUMBER 29 — That is the percentage of all new cars sold around the world this year that are expected to be powered by electricity. It is a sharp rise from just 4 percent in 2020. See where it’s happening. SPORTS Football: A judge granted a temporary restraining order that could allow the Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie Jack Pyburn and other N.F.L. players to return to college play this season. Cycling: A driver crashed into a Tennessee university’s cycling team training on a mountain highway, killing two riders and injuring seven others. RECIPE OF THE DAY Davide Luciano for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Gozde Eker. I thought it might be possible to come up with a recipe for a vegetarian patty melt that was pretty good. I never thought I’d prefer it to the Los Angeles original. Check it: portobello patty melts. Make sure you get a nice crisp, buttery crust on the rye bread at the end to contrast with the melted Swiss, soft, caramelized onions and beefy mushroom meatiness. HOLD ON Vincent Tullo for The New York Times Alabama Shakes was one of the breakout rock bands of the 2010s: Grammy winners, festival mainstays. Then the band went on hiatus for an extended stretch, and the frontwoman, Brittany Howard, pursued a solo career. Now the band returns with its first album in more than a decade, “I Must Be Dreaming,” out this month. Jon Pareles, who has covered pop music at The Times for four decades, talked with the trio about their return, and about the difficulties of writing excellent songs. “If I’m ever reincarnated, I do not want to be a writer ever again,” Howard told him. “I want to become a mathematician or something — something stuck and true. One plus one equals two. Something uncreative. Maybe a mechanic.” More on culture Helen Shaw, our theater critic, has been soaking up the delicious chaos of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, taking in close to two dozen shows (out of roughly 4,000!) and reveling in the power of artists watching other artists work. Read her account of a whirlwind trip to Scotland. In June, a Russian drone struck the Dormition Cathedral at the center of Kyiv’s oldest monastery, causing a massive blaze. Volunteers — mostly parishioners, military veterans and charity workers — have since worked alongside Orthodox priests to clean it up, and the results are stunning. Late night hosts joked about Trump’s efforts to rekindle his bromance with Kim Jong-un. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Sleep better at home. Make your bedroom more like a hotel room, with advice from the blacked-out somnologists at Wirecutter. Plan for retirement long before you retire, in part to protect against cognitive decline. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was provolone. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. If you’re not currently a subscriber, would you consider becoming one today? Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. Appreciate it. See you tomorrow. — Sam Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Deputy Editorial Director: Lauren Jackson

THIS DAY IN HISTORY August 20 1619 First enslaved Africans arrive in Jamestown, setting the stage for slavery in North America Some 20 Angolans, kidnapped by the Portuguese, arrive in the British colony of Virginia and are then bought by English colonists. The arrival of the enslaved Africans in the New World marks a beginning of two and a half centuries of slavery in North America. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 19th Century 1804 Corps of Discovery suffers its only death Arts & Entertainment 1918 “Valley of the Dolls” author Jacqueline Susann born Civil War 1862 Horace Greeley’s “The Prayer of Twenty Millions” is published Cold War 1968 Soviets invade Czechoslovakia Crime 1989 The Menendez brothers murder their parents Early U.S. 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers European History 1940 Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky assassinated in Mexico Inventions & Science 1911 Blazingly fast around-the-world telegram sent, 66 years before Voyager II launch Space Exploration 1975 Viking 1 launched to Mars Sports 1920 Early football leagues consolidate into precursor of the NFL 1945 17-year-old becomes youngest to hit MLB home run U.S. Presidents 1974 Gerald Ford selects Nelson Rockefeller as vice president 1833 Benjamin Harrison is born Vietnam War 1954 United States decides to support noncommunist nations in Southeast Asia World War II 1944 Soviets thwart German army in Romania

Farm Belt pain Data: AAA. Chart: Ben Geman/Axios Diesel prices are soaring just as the energy-thirsty peak of harvest season looms for many of the country's largest crops, Axios' Ben Geman writes. Mid-August diesel prices (charted above) are at their highest in the last decade, according to AAA data. Between the lines: It's a double whammy for farmers. The Iran war is also causing much higher fertilizer costs that hit months ago.

🚨 Bessent's bond alarm Data: Mortgage Bankers Association. Chart: Courtenay Brown/Axios Axios' Courtenay Brown, who co-writes our midday Macro newsletter, explains why you should pay attention to chaos in the bond market: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent moved to calm the bond markets yesterday after a recent selloff made mortgages and other consumer loans more expensive. Why it matters: The bond market impacts how much it costs everyone — the government, consumers, and companies — to borrow money. The rising borrowing costs could deepen the affordability crisis, a political problem for President Trump heading into the midterms. Bessent's move to increase repurchases of long-term government notes and bonds (increasing demand for them) is largely symbolic but could still help bring those costs down. 🖼️ The big picture: The bond market is getting squeezed from multiple directions. War in the Middle East is reviving inflation fears, deficits are ballooning, and the AI boom is gobbling up cash — all pushing up the rates investors demand to lend the government money for decades. 🔮 What's next: Wall Street is skeptical the relief will stick, given that the Treasury Department's purchases are tiny compared with the roughly $30 trillion market for government debt. But the signal is important: Washington is showing it is willing to step in as high borrowing costs become an economic and political liability. More on Bessent's move.

🇺🇸 Milestone: $40 trillion debt binge Data: U.S. Treasury. Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios America's national debt crossed an ominous threshold yesterday: $40 trillion — and rising by about $100 billion a week, Axios' Ben Berkowitz writes. Why it matters: It's not sustainable. The inevitable reckoning means some administration, some day — perhaps sooner than later — will have to make tough choices to get the public finances in order. 🧮 By the numbers: The debt has doubled in the last 10 years and quadrupled in less than 20. It's the equivalent of almost $117,000 of debt for every single person in the United States. Front pages of today's Wall Street Journal, New York Times. Between the lines: It's a psychologically important milestone that underscores the real problem: the debt's incessant, rapid growth. Both obvious options to tackle it — spending less or taxing more — are politically treacherous. 🧐 What to watch: By some estimates, at the current pace, a $50 trillion national debt is only about six years away. How we got here (WSJ gift link).

Data centers scramble midterms Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images A populist fever is coursing through the midterms, forcing campaigns to retreat and recalibrate as they confront a groundswell of hostility toward AI data centers, Axios' Zachary Basu, Alex Isenstadt and Maria Curi write. Why it matters: Grassroots pressure is breaking the bipartisan consensus that enabled America's AI buildout. Candidates in both parties are racing to distance themselves from projects their own leaders spent years courting. 🖼️ The big picture: What started as scattered, localized NIMBYism is scaling into a national cross-partisan movement that could slow America's race for AI supremacy. In Ohio, former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has spent millions on a summer ad campaign branding Republican Sen. Jon Husted as "the face of data centers," weaponizing Husted's years of courting the industry as lieutenant governor. As we scooped in AM yesterday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned AI companies a Husted loss could chill support for data centers nationwide. (Read the memo.) In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott — who once declared Texas "the epicenter of AI development" — is now pushing to restrict data centers in rural areas and strip away tax incentives after Democrat Gina Hinojosa branded the state the "Wild West of data centers." In Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro — who spent years courting data center investment — imposed sweeping guardrails this week after Republican challenger Stacy Garrity accused him of "rolling out the red carpet" for developers. In Wisconsin, GOP gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany is running ads attacking his Democratic opponent as "data center David Crowley." That puts Tiffany, a close President Trump ally, on the same side of the issue as Crowley's former primary rival, democratic socialist Francesca Hong. In Wyoming, Republican Chuck Gray won Tuesday's primary for the state's open House seat after running ads promising to "stop data centers" and calling for a federal ban. 👀 Behind the scenes: The backlash has caught the industry and political establishment flat-footed, triggering finger-pointing over who failed to see it coming — and who should pay to contain it. One Republican operative unloaded on GOP groups that spent months raising money from tech companies while holding back resources that could help candidates weather the attacks. "Maybe they should stop trying to shake down these tech companies and start putting the money that they raised from them into these elections," the operative said, pointing to the NRSC. "What are they waiting for?" New York Gov. Kathy Hochul — who last month imposed the nation's first statewide moratorium on new hyperscale data centers — told Axios the NRSC's push for AI companies to improve their messaging is "tone-deaf" and "wildly inappropriate." Data: Morning Consult. Chart: Sara Wise/Axios The other side: The White House and AI companies know they have a serious political problem, and moved earlier this year to address the biggest grievances at their source. Trump's ratepayer-protection pledge requires companies to cover the power generation and grid upgrades their projects require, rather than stick local customers with the bill. Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI and Amazon have all signed on, keenly aware of the threat to their massive AI ambitions.

The only window that opens on the presidential car is the driver’s window. It also has no keyholes, and only the Secret Service knows how to open the doors. James

Prince Harry and Meghan are returning to the UK with their children LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have decided to return to the United Kingdom for an extended stay starting this fall, but they won’t resume their roles as working members of the royal family, The Associated Press learned Wednesday. https://apnews.com/article/prince-harry-meghan-lilibet-archie-2a26920acb7ed33bb590654bfd57702b

What beats seeing eclipses from space? Try the northern and southern lights Eclipses may be wondrous, but nothing beats seeing the northern and southern lights from space. Read More.

New CDC director acknowledges agency problems in first large staff meeting In her first large staff meeting, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention promised Wednesday to advocate for the agency while acknowledging that congressionally funded programs lacked staff and employees were feeling burned out. Read More.

UN rights chief is concerned about arrest of opposition figures in Zambia's election The United Nations human rights chief said Wednesday he is concerned over the arrest of opposition officials in connection with last week's troubled election in Zambia. Read More.

What to know about the outbreak of a rare kind of Ebola An Ebola outbreak in Congo has surpassed 5,000 confirmed cases, making it one of the largest outbreaks of the deadly disease ever recorded. Read More.

'Many' Fed officials think higher rates will be needed if inflation stays high Many Federal Reserve officials think the central bank will have to lift its key short-term interest rate in the coming months if inflation doesn't subside, minutes of the Fed's meeting last month showed. Read More.

PHOTO ESSAY: Behind Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, a world of artisans endures For centuries, Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar has been more than a marketplace. Behind its crowded passageways, generations of craftspeople have made, repaired and restored the objects that eventually emerge for sale. Read More.

Longtime publisher of Stars and Stripes to retire, citing differences with Pentagon leadership The longtime publisher of Stars and Stripes has announced his retirement, ending a decades-long career with the military newspaper as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon moves to exert editorial control and eliminate what it asserts are “woke distractions.” Read More.

Guileless Old Party (Anna Moneymaker / Getty)   View in browser For many observers of American politics, the past few years have been disillusioning, knocking down hopeful beliefs about what the people of the United States will support or tolerate. Even some of Donald Trump’s backers have become disaffected. Yet somehow, a small caucus of non-MAGA Republican senators has managed to remain preciously naive about the president and the administration he runs. No matter how many times Trump or his aides show who they are and how they operate, these senators seem flabbergasted and saddened. No case illustrates the ease with which they are fooled like the confirmation of Todd Blanche as attorney general. Blanche was confirmed last week on a 50–49 vote, but only after GOP Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn extracted a written assurance from Blanche that a $1.8 billion fund for payouts to Trump allies would not proceed. Senator Bill Cassidy also wavered, but said he was persuaded by the vow. (All three men will leave the Senate at the end of this term: Tillis is retiring, and Cornyn and Cassidy lost primaries to Trump-backed challengers.) This weekend, Blanche was interviewed on Meet the Press. Kristen Welker asked whether he could “pledge that the Justice Department will always act independently of the White House.” Blanche refused—likely an honest answer, given his demonstrated willingness to follow Trump’s lead, but one that should worry anyone who believes in the rule of law; witness Trump’s repeated demands for political prosecutions, irrespective of evidence. Yet Blanche insisted to Welker that Trump “will never ask me to do something unethical or illegal. He never has. He never will.” That might reassure someone whose political memory stretches back only as far as early August. But anyone old enough to remember the slush fund, or Blanche’s starring role in negotiating it (as laid out by Federal Judge Kathleen Williams in May), would know that Trump not only has asked Blanche to do something unethical, but that Blanche complied. In order to vote to confirm, Cornyn, Tillis, and Cassidy had to convince themselves first that Blanche’s conduct in that case is not indicative of his basic moral compass; and second that he would be more accountable once permanently confirmed by the Senate than he was when he still had to win over their votes. If Trump finds or attempts to find some way to resuscitate the slush fund—as some experts believe he might—many people will be dismayed, but only this trio of guileless senators will be shocked. Cassidy’s willingness to vote for a Trump yes-man is all the more puzzling because he voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, and because the president led the charge to defeat him in a primary. (The impeachment vote was Trump’s main reason for targeting him.) But Cassidy has a long record of credulity. As my colleague Nicholas Florko has reported, Cassidy—a physician—cast a deciding vote to confirm Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but only after the nominee made promises about preserving the existing vaccination regime, a pledge he promptly broke. On ABC’s The Week this past Sunday, Cassidy said “it’s pretty evident” that Kennedy’s vow was a lie. And on CNN’s State of the Union, he called the White House’s latest vaccine move, attempting to unbundle the measles, mumps, and rubella injection, “a crazy, stupid thing.” Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, another doctor, voted for Kennedy and has since been upset about the administration’s anti-vaccine steps. Who could have foreseen that the prominent vaccine skeptic would undermine federal vaccination policy? Two other moderate Republicans, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, voted against Blanche’s confirmation, issuing statements that noted the politicization of the Justice Department under his watch as acting attorney general. But they are not always so clear-eyed. Murkowski delivered one of 2025’s most unintentionally hilarious statements when she cast a crucial vote to pass Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act through the Senate. “My sincere hope is that this is not the final product,” Murkowski said in a statement. “This bill needs more work across chambers and is not ready for the President’s desk. We need to work together to get this right.” Naturally, that didn’t happen; the mystery is why she thought the White House, or Mike Johnson’s House, would improve the bill once she’d surrendered her leverage. Collins, however, is the dean of the credulous caucus. The Mainer, who faces a tough reelection campaign this fall, is perpetually concerned about Trump-administration actions, but seldom ready to actually use her power. Collins is a rare pro-abortion-rights Republican who previously said she wouldn’t support any Supreme Court nominee who opposed Roe v. Wade. In 2018, she voted to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who said Roe was “settled as precedent.” When Kavanaugh was part of the majority that voted to overturn Roe in 2022, Collins lamented the ruling but now says she didn’t regret her vote for Kavanaugh and would do it again. More recently, Collins helped pass a huge appropriation for ICE with few strings attached, then expressed dismay at the use of the funds to buy “shock gloves” for agents. Even her vote against Blanche was symbolic, because he had enough votes to be confirmed without her. One could easily write these senators off as cynical, but if they’re acting for political gain, it’s not working well: Cassidy’s and Cornyn’s mild deviations from Trump led to the end of their careers; Tillis’s retirement helped him avoid what might have been a stiff primary challenge. Many of their concerns appear earnest. Perhaps they really just are that gullible, unable to adapt to a Trump age that is leaving them behind. In defending his Blanche vote, Cassidy shrugged off attacks: “I’ll be criticized for this vote. What’s new?” But voters might reasonably expect that their elected officials are savvier about the world than a babe in the woods. Related: Why did Bill Cassidy do it? What Trump officials mean by “never”

🍌 1 for the road: Coffee goes bananas Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios Banana is the flavor of the summer, Axios' Carly Mallenbaum reports. It's the fastest-growing added beverage flavor over the past year at restaurants tracked by Circana, a market research firm. 📈 Google searches for "banana coffee" and "banana matcha" hit all-time highs this year. TikTok has plenty of videos for the banana-curious — including Eva Longoria's tutorial for making banana iced coffee at home. Go deeper.

Washington's stealth oil operation Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images The U.S. military has quietly established a shipping corridor in and out of the Strait of Hormuz, two U.S. officials tell Axios' Barak Ravid. 🚢 Under the operation, which has been underway for the past several weeks, 15–20 tankers have entered and exited the strait through a southern channel along the coast of Oman. About 10 million barrels of oil a day are being transported out of the strait and injected into the global energy market, the officials said. That's roughly half the pre-war volume. ⚓️ The U.S. military is helping empty tankers enter the Gulf from the Arabian Sea through the strait, pick up oil from the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait, and then exit. One of the U.S. officials, who has direct knowledge of the matter, tells Axios: "We have been controlling the southern lane of the Strait of Hormuz for two months now. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps can be a nuisance, but they don't control the strait. We do." 🪖 The task force overseeing the Hormuz effort is being run out of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division headquarters in Fort Bragg, N.C. It creates a daily list of ships exiting the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz and into the Arabian Sea, as well as a list of rented empty tankers that travel from the Arabian Sea, through the strait and into the ports of Gulf countries to pick up more oil. Each night, the ships are scheduled to move in one big outbound line during a certain time slot and one big inbound line during a separate time slot. The ships are given several checkpoints to pass through and report back. The U.S. Air Force has fighter jets looking for Iranian cruise missiles and drones to shoot down. Keep reading.

The f ollowing article contains factual information that shold interest people owithk divergent views. https://atoday.org/as-the-npuc-constituency-meets-a-member-asks-on-womens-ordination-are-we-leaders-or-laggards/

Trump picks Dr. Heidi Overton, a top White House aide, to lead the Food and Drug Administration WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Heidi Overton, a top White House aide, has been picked to lead the Food and Drug Administration, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday. https://apnews.com/article/fda-donald-trump-heidi-overton-marty-makary-a54907d62a2482bd462410c0778266b9?

Judge removed from Texas track meet killing case as Karmelo Anthony seeks new trial McKINNEY, Texas (AP) — The judge who presided over Texas teenager Karmelo Anthony’s murder conviction was removed from the case Wednesday ahead of a key hearing to decide whether to grant a new trial in the fatal stabbing of a 17-year-old athlete at a high school track meet. https://apnews.com/article/texas-track-stabbing-austin-metcalf-karmelo-anthony-5526b6ba91035724814c2beeab4bd4fb?

Trump’s New Deportation Plot ‘Looks Like Human Trafficking’ A new draft contract for the administration’s self-deportation scheme has been branded “gross and un-American.” The Trump administration is looking to pay up to $2.3 billion for a follow-on to its scandal-hit self-deportation scheme that will include payouts for unaccompanied migrant kids who “choose” to remove themselves. The original $915 million award went to Salus Worldwide Solutions in May 2025, a company barely two years old with no prior work as a lead federal contractor that has since faced corruption allegations over how it won the contract. The new deal contains no provisions for protecting the children it intends to target, and states their payouts will go only to “Government-designated adult recipients.” Rekha Sharma-Crawford, an award-winning immigration attorney, told PunchUp, the Daily Beast’s sister Substack, that the arrangement “looks and feels a lot like human trafficking.” Rep. Bennie Thompson, ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, called the focus on minors “gross and un-American.” The new contract also contains provisions for crews to enroll migrants already detained at 35 facilities, with mobile “rover” units roaming across the country on request. A DHS spokesperson said it would be “inappropriate to comment” until the award process ends. Salus did not respond to requests for comment. Tom Latchem exposes the secrets, scandals, and stories that powerful people and institutions want to keep under wraps. Follow all of his reporting at PunchUp on Substack.

Trump’s Deportation Ploy Blows Up in His Face Last-ditch efforts to keep ICE out of the headlines appear to have been in vain. The Trump administration’s push to keep ICE out of the headlines before the midterms does not appear to have convinced voters, with half of Americans saying its immigration crackdown is still too aggressive. After the White House faced bipartisan backlash over the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis at the hands of federal agents earlier this year, President Donald Trump ousted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Her successor, Markwayne Mullin, pledged to make the White House’s mass deportation campaign more discreet, including by making fewer arrests in public. He also threw Noem under the bus by publicly calling her signature billion-dollar warehouse crusade a mistake in humiliating testimony. But with less than three months until the midterm elections, a Politico poll published Wednesday suggests the makeover has failed to shift public opinion. Half of Americans, including nearly a quarter of Trump’s 2024 voters, still say the 80-year-old president’s immigration campaign is too aggressive, according to Politico. That figure is “virtually unchanged” from polling in January and April, when outrage mounted over federal agents killing U.S. citizens Renee Good, 37, and Alex Pretti, 37. Non-MAGA Trump voters are more than twice as likely as self-identified MAGA voters to believe that Trump’s mass deportation campaign has gone too far, with 31 percent describing it as too aggressive compared with 15 percent of MAGA voters, according to the poll conducted from Aug. 8 to Aug. 12. The findings point to a potential vulnerability for Republicans heading into the November midterms on an issue that has traditionally been a source of strength for the party.“Voters really did want border security, but they did not want to see abuelita taken away because she’s been here for 40 years but without documentation,” Arizona-based GOP strategist Barrett Marson told Politico. The poll, conducted by London-based polling firm Public First, found a notable proportion of Americans have noticed the administration’s attempts to change course. But those changes have done little to improve trust. A 56 percent majority of Americans say there has been at least a “small shift” in how ICE is carrying out its immigration crackdown. But 44 percent of those respondents say the changes have made no difference in how much they trust the administration, while 30 percent say they have made them less willing to trust officials on immigration. Whit Ayres, a Washington-based Republican pollster, told Politico that the stubborn public opposition is “not that surprising at all.” Even with a lower-profile approach, the administration is still pushing to ramp up arrest and deportation numbers. “It’s a lot easier just to go into an airport and find somebody who had overstayed a visa, had applied for an extension … and throw them into handcuffs and put them in a detention center. That’s the easy way to get the numbers up, and a great way to thoroughly antagonize public opinion,” he said. Another Republican strategist, who spoke with Politico on the condition of anonymity, said Trump “ran on border security, and he’s following through.” “But the visuals of wins are unfortunately overshadowed by the visuals of chaos,” they said. “There’s no question that the wall-to-wall coverage of the chaos that follows ICE makes voters squeamish.” When contacted for comment, White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told the Daily Beast that “Americans sent President Trump back to the White House with a clear mandate to deport criminal illegal aliens.” “Every single day the Trump Administration is delivering on his promise to the American people to remove murderers, pedophiles, rapists, and gang members from American communities,” she added. “Americans are grateful to the President for removing these criminals from their neighborhoods and for Making America Safe Again.” ICE raids during Trump’s second term in the White House drew headlines for sparking protests nationwide. The aggressive enforcement campaign has also put pressure on the agents tasked with carrying it out. John Sandweg, a former acting ICE director, told Politico in an interview published last fall that ICE agents were “under tremendous pressure.” “They’ve been under a lot of pressure to ratchet up the number of arrests. They’ve been forced to adopt some of these more aggressive tactics, because the [Trump] administration seems more interested in the quantity of people arrested, more so than the quality,” said Sandweg. Reuters reported in July that at least seven people have been killed in immigration enforcement operations since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, while 53 people have died in ICE custody since the president’s second term began. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-deportation-ploy-blows-up-in-his-face/?

North Korea shrugs off Trump’s scaled-back drills with South Korea, saying it changes nothing SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Wednesday that a U.S. decision to scale back military exercises with South Korea does not change what it sees as the provocative nature of the drills, dampening hopes for an early resumption of diplomacy between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump. https://apnews.com/article/korea-us-military-drills-313e01e4ee305b4c9b1b8bf12643fb17?