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📈 Fastest-growing jobs Data: BLS. Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals Health care and social assistance jobs are projected to see the most growth over the next decade, Axios' Emily Peck writes from a new government report. 🧑‍⚕️ There will be about 847,000 new home health and personal care aide jobs created from 2025 to 2035, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects. Other fields with big expected growth: registered nurses, health services managers and nurse practitioners. That's fueled by America's aging population, which needs more care. 🤖 Yes, but: The report also forecasts job losses across several occupations as a result of AI and automation. It projects about 752,000 fewer office and admin support jobs over the next decade, for example. Go deeper ... See the data.

Roman ready for launch A rendering of the Roman Space Telescope. Image: NASA NASA is preparing to launch the Roman Space Telescope — one of the agency's biggest and most promising scientific endeavors in years, Alex Fitzpatrick reports. 🔭 Roman is designed to help answer some of science's most tantalizing mysteries, including questions around dark matter and dark energy. Researchers also hope to use it to discover a plethora of new exoplanets — worlds outside our own solar system. 🚀 Launch is set for early Sunday from Florida's Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Roman is carrying two scientific devices: the Wide Field Instrument and the Coronagraph Instrument. 📸 The first is a 300-megapixel near-infrared camera with a field of view 100x that of the esteemed Hubble Space Telescope. The result: much faster data collection and discovery-making. The second will be used for high-contrast imaging and spectroscopy of nearby exoplanets to better understand them. (Spectroscopy is a way of studying planets and other objects based on their color.) Roman is lifted into a portable clean room called the "Chariot" for transportation ahead of launch. Photo: Sydney Rohde/NASA 🪐 Researchers hope that data from Roman can help answer lingering questions about two of the universe's least-understood phenomena: dark energy and dark matter. Scientists have proposed dark energy as the driving force behind the universe's accelerating expansion. Dark matter is thought to be an invisible "glue" binding the universe together. 🛰️ Jeff Kruk, Roman's deputy senior project scientist, tells Axios: "I can't help but think that the biggest result from Roman 10 years from now is something that we just haven't thought of yet." Go deeper ... How to watch.

ADRA mobilizes aid for communities hit by earthquake in Colombia More than 1,200 food packages have been distributed to families in Quibdó as the church responds to the disaster's aftermath. https://adventist.news/news/adventists-mobilize-aid-for-communities-hit-by-earthquake-in-colombia

Trump Gets a Humiliating History Lesson Over His Lake Name Change It’s called a hydronym, Mr. President. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney taunted Donald Trump on X over his unhinged push to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America.” The 80-year-old president signed an executive order amid his escalating feud and trade war with Canada. “Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade,” Trump declared, as he ordered the Interior Department to update the Geographic Names Information System and adopt his newly invented moniker across the federal government. “It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Trump said.The Canadian leader brushed off Trump’s attempt at a rebrand with a humiliating history lesson. Carney pointed out that the name Lake Ontario has survived for more than four centuries, and predates the founding of both Canada and the United States.“The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big,’” Carney wrote on X, referring to the smallest of the Great Lakes. “The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.” “We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms,” Carney continued, using the proper term for the name of a body of water while making a dig at Trump’s flip-flopping policies and his makeover of national landmarks since his return to the White House to the White House last January. Carney insisted that his country will not be adopting Trump’s made-up name. “Canadian women and men also know that things must be called by their name, and this lake is called Lake Ontario – today and forever.” The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment. Trump and Carney have clashed over the president’s tariffs on Canadian automobiles, with many Canadian provinces retaliating by pulling American liquor from store shelves. Tensions escalated last week when trade talks between the two neighbors collapsed and Trump slapped 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. Next month, Canada is hitting back with “dollar for dollar” counter tariffs. Trump’s executive order gives the Interior Department 30 days to update the name change. The aging president pulled a similar move on the first day of his second term last January, signing an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” Mexico pushed back against the change, arguing that the U.S. doesn’t have the authority to alter the name of a shared body of international water. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-gets-a-humiliating-history-lesson-over-his-lake-name-change/?

Trump’s Top Army Goon’s Jan. 6 Fiasco Role Revealed The man the president and defense secretary want to lead the Army was at the heart of the Pentagon’s Capitol riot failure. Donald Trump’s favorite general was a key player in the Pentagon’s calamitous Jan. 6 response. General Chris LaNeve, who has been tasked by Pete Hegseth to lead the Army, was a central figure in the most disputed moment of the Pentagon’s botched intervention, documents reviewed by PunchUp show. It comes after reports of a reason behind LaNeve’s predecessor as Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George’s dismissal: his desire to push forward with the investigation of a bizarre Apache helicopter flyby of MAGA singer Kid Rock’s Tennessee estate. Days before George was dismissed as Army chief of staff in April, LaNeve, 59, reportedly told him the defense secretary did not want the probe to go ahead. Concerned, George confided in colleagues, only to be fired on Apr. 2, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. George also refused to strike two Black and two female officers from a promotion list. LaNeve, Hegseth’s former military aide who was handed his job in an acting capacity and is in line to keep it permanently, was spotted by Trump on an inaugural-ball video call in January 2025 and asked the room: “Is this man central casting, or what?” Months later, LaNeve returned from South Korea as Hegseth’s senior military assistant and, by Feb. 6, had a fourth star, rising from brigadier to full general in five years. But PunchUp, the Daily Beast’s sister investigations Substack, has uncovered documents that highlight a key role he played in the Pentagon’s ill-fated handling of the Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021. By mid-afternoon that day, the D.C. National Guard was in riot gear and on buses a few miles from the Capitol, awaiting an order. It came when Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller approved the deployment at 3:04 p.m. But Maj. Gen. William Walker, the Guard’s commanding general, did not move his men until 5:09 p.m. He says nobody told him he could. McCarthy says somebody did—and that the man he used to pass on the message was LaNeve. Buried in the House Jan. 6 committee’s final report is the account of one phone call that could explain the bungle—about which three Army officials, including LaNeve, gave three different versions. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told investigators he issued the order telling Walker he was finally cleared to move at 4:35 p.m., and that he used LaNeve—then a one-star and his director of Army operations—as his go-between. The report states it was “a conversation Major General Walker said never happened.” LaNeve, however, told the committee that he had called Walker at 4:25 p.m. to say his forces should “get on the bus, do not leave.” On a second call ten minutes later, he said, he heard McCarthy give the order himself, then took the phone back to pass on the rally point and the officer Walker’s troops should meet. Walker, he recalled, replied “Roger,” but LaNeve also admitted there was “mass confusion in that room.” McCarthy says he never spoke to Walker, and Walker says neither call happened. He “never saw” LaNeve on the video teleconference that afternoon, he told the committee, and “didn’t hear General LaNeve’s voice.” Walker’s aide-de-camp, Lt. Timothy Nick, on just his second day in the job, had been ordered to keep a handwritten log. At 4:37 p.m., he appears to have scribbled down the same details McCarthy says he asked LaNeve to relay. Walker says his aide could only have gotten it from the video call he was on. Nick put the moment the orders came at 5:09 p.m. That was the same minute the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. James McConville, passed a teleconference screen and spotted Walker doing nothing. “General McConville came back into the call and said, ‘Hey, you’re a go,’” Walker recalled. The Guard reached the Capitol after the fighting was effectively over, three hours and 19 minutes after the first plea for help. “It shouldn’t take three hours to respond to an urgent request,” Walker told the Senate in March 2021. In the end, the committee gave up trying to settle the matter. The delay was “unnecessary and unacceptable,” it found, but not deliberate. The two sides held accounts that “are not reconcilable.” While the contradictions were never resolved, LaNeve was never accused of wrongdoing. Hegseth calls LaNeve “precisely the kind of leader the U.S. Army needs right now,” dismissing critics as out-of-touch insiders. Yet five months into the acting job, LaNeve has still not been nominated. Without unanimous Republican support, any nomination cannot clear the Senate Armed Services Committee, and several members have raised concerns about the speed of LaNeve’s rise and lack of experience. When asked about LaNeve’s role on Jan. 6, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell did not address it, and instead told PunchUp that LaNeve “is delivering an outstanding performance,” adding the department was “actively coordinating with our Senate partners to lock in the optimal moment to formally submit his nomination.” He earlier called the Post’s reporting a “tired, old story simply to manufacture drama.” PunchUp also approached the Army for comment. They did not respond by the time of publication. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-and-hegesths-top-army-goons-jan-6-national-guard-fiasco-role-revealed/? ps:So Pathetic!!!!!

A New Tree-Sit Movement to Block Trump’s Border Wall Of the more than $170 billion that President Donald Trump secured for his border regime in the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” nearly $50 billion is allocated to border wall construction. Even with these enormous resources, however, the administration continues to face challenges constructing its monument to violent exclusion along the southern border through tribal, private, and state lands. https://theintercept.com/2026/08/27/trump-us-mexico-border-wall-tree-sit-arizona/? “They Want People Scared”: Former Palestine Action Member Blasts Trump’s Terror Sanctions When police in Kent, United Kingdom, arrested American peace activist Max Geller in 2021 for chaining himself to a van parked in front of an Israeli-owned weapons factory, he knew he might be jailed and face charges for his protest. https://theintercept.com/2026/08/27/palestine-action-terrorism-sanctions-trump-ban-israel/? Palestinians Asked for Help Against Settlers. Israelis Detained Palestinian Workers Instead. Shortly before midnight on August 4, Israeli settlers arrived at the home of Loui Abu Ridi, a Palestinian American, in the village of Qusra in the occupied West Bank. https://theintercept.com/2026/08/26/settlers-israel-soldiers-west-bank-siege-qusra/? Conservative Groups Side With Minneapolis Protesters Against Trump Crackdown A trio of conservative and libertarian-leaning groups have asked a federal judge to force the disclosure of confidential files about undercover agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement infiltrating left-wing protest groups in Minneapolis. https://theintercept.com/2026/08/25/minneapolis-ice-protesters-undercover-agents/? It’s Time to Rein in Lethal AI Drones Drone warfare, for many years, meant mostly one thing: A U.S. Predator drone, a missile-armed winged lawnmower in the sky, stalked a single target and then assassinated him. Or someone, at least. Top-secret Pentagon documents showed that 90 percent of those killed during one campaign in Afghanistan were not the primary targets, according to a 2015 investigation by The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2026/08/26/ai-drone-warfare-russia-ukraine-openai-anthropic/? Local Cops Flout Sanctuary Law to Help ICE Deport Immigrants Minutes after Riverton police officer Brad Herzog ran 31-year-old Daniel Torrez Perez’s name through a law enforcement database one night in April 2025, his phone rang. It was the FBI. https://theintercept.com/2026/08/25/illinois-trust-act-ice-deport-police-collaboration/? Sixty More U.S. Soldiers Reported Injured in Iran War The U.S. military revealed that an additional 60 service members have been injured in the Iran war, lifting the official toll to 776 troops wounded or killed. Some 345 of these casualties have occurred since July 7, after a second ceasefire imploded. As the numbers of dead and wounded troops have recently mounted, the Pentagon has quietly been seeking casualty and mortuary services, according to government contracting documents analyzed by The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2026/08/25/military-soldiers-wounded-casualties-iran-war/? Trump Admin Said She Was Lying About Stillbirth in ICE Custody. New Evidence Points to Lack of Prenatal Care. Two months after Iris Dayana Monterroso Lemus lost her son to a stillbirth last year while detained by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the Trump administration issued a public response to her allegations that she did not receive prenatal care. https://theintercept.com/2026/08/27/trump-ice-custody-pregnancy-stillbirth-deport/?

🎉 Yahoo! It's Friday! You made it. In today's edition: College football primer, Braves sweep Dodgers, Air Jordan 41, Broadcast Box Score, the next Mike Tyson, LLWS Final Four, and more. Yahoo Sports AM is written by Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy. Let's sports...   🚨 ICYMI HEADLINES ⚾️ Braves sweep Dodgers: The Braves completed a sweep of the Dodgers behind Chris Sale's first complete game shutout since 2019, an 11-strikeout, no-walk gem. The Cy Young contender's ERA is down to a microscopic 2.06, not that far off Jacob Misiorowski's 1.73. 🏒 Helly wants out: After months of rumors, longtime Jets goaltender and three-time Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck has confirmed he's ready to move on from the team, saying in a statement shared by his agent that he "privately requested a trade" months ago. ⚽️ The draw is set: Some of the most intriguing matchups from Thursday's Champions League draw include Arsenal hosting Real Madrid, Man City visiting PSG and Barcelona, and Atlético Madrid hosting Bayern Munich and Man United. The action kicks off in 11 days. ⚾️ CBA update: MLB's latest proposal in the ongoing CBA negotiations includes shortening the free agency window while sticking firm on a salary cap system. The union quickly expressed its displeasure at the idea, saying it "would eliminate player rights…and reduce player leverage." 👟 Records fall in Zurich: Hurdlers ran wild on Thursday at Zurich's Diamond League event, where Brazil's Alison dos Santos broke the men's 400m hurdle world record (45.80 seconds) and USA's Masai Russell broke the women's 100m hurdle world record (12.09 seconds).   🏈 WEEK 0 COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS BACK (Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports) The college football season kicks off tomorrow after yet another change-filled offseason. Here's a quick primer to prepare you for the weeks and months ahead. 5 storylines: Eligibility crisis: The current rules about who can or cannot play college sports — up to and including former professionals — are as confusing as they are impermanent, thanks to court rulings, conference bans and more. The only certainty is that this eligibility crisis will continue to dominate headlines as the season gets underway. The CFP is different, again: The third year of the 12-team playoff features two key changes. First, all four power conference champions will automatically qualify (last season, that would have helped Duke); second, Notre Dame is guaranteed a playoff spot as long they're in the top 12 in the final rankings (that would have helped them last season, too). Big Ten > SEC? Fans of the Big Ten believe their conference has supplanted the SEC as the top dog, and there's plenty of evidence to support their claim. The Big Ten is seeking a fourth straight national championship, and earned all 69 first-place votes in the AP preseason poll, marking the first time since 2015 that SEC teams earned none. Pac 12, reborn: After two years with just Oregon State and Washington State, the Pac-12 has added six new members: Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State (via Mountain West) and Texas State (via Sun Belt). It's a far cry from what the Pac-12 used to be, but it might just be the best of the Group of Six. Old faces, new places: Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss to LSU), Kyle Whittingham (Utah to Michigan) and Matt Campbell (Iowa State to Penn State) headline the list of coaches with new teams; QB Darian Mensah (Duke to Miami), WR Cam Coleman (Auburn to Texas) and QB Sam Leavitt (ASU to LSU) headline the most notable QB and non-QB transfers. (Joseph Raines/Yahoo Sports) Fast facts: Yahoo Top 25: Oregon leads our preseason rankings, with Notre Dame, defending champion Indiana, betting favorite Ohio State and Texas rounding out the top five. Heisman favorites: Notre Dame QB CJ Carr (+750) and Texas QB Arch Manning (+750) are the co-favorites, followed by Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss (+900) and Oregon QB Dante Moore (10-1). Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith has the best odds for any non-QB at 12-1. Welcome to the FBS: Perennial FCS powerhouse North Dakota State (10 national titles since 2011) made the jump to the Mountain West, while Sacramento State joined the MAC.* Both make their FBS debuts tomorrow. Further reading: Dark horse playoff contenders 10 coaches on the hot seat 10 best non-conference games *Frequent flyers: Sacramento State is the latest team to experience the wonkiness of modern realignment, as they join a league comprising mostly schools in the Great Lakes region, roughly 2,000 miles away.   💯 STAT SHEET BIG NUMBERS No player has driven in more runs this season than this Reds 22-year-old rookie. (Bryan Kennedy/MLB Photos via Getty Images) ⚾️ 100 RBI Reds infielder Sal Stewart leads the majors with 100 RBI, making him just the third rookie in MLB history to be the first player in a season to cross the century mark. The other two? Jose Canseco in 1986 and Ted Williams in 1939. Stacked race: You'd think a guy with 28 HR, 100 RBI and an .806 OPS would be a shoo-in for NL ROY, but Stewart is in a fascinating four-man race with Cardinals 2B JJ Wetherholt (4.8 WAR), Mets OF Carson Benge (.990 OPS in August) and Mets RHP Nolan McLean (2.37 ERA in last 15 starts). The Air Jordan 41 "Ruby" launches today in China. (Nike) 👟 Air Jordan 41 The 41st edition (!!!) of Michael Jordan's iconic basketball shoe is available starting today in China ahead of its global release in late October. Jordan, 63, remains actively involved in the process of designing the sneaker that helped make him a billionaire, writes Yahoo Sports' Shlomo Sprung. What they're saying: "He's our competitive advantage," says Jordan Brand executive Donald Kelsey. "If you think about his access to what he sees, it's like the top 1%. Whether that's watches, automobiles, aircrafts. What he sees in the world of innovation and technology, he's already like five, 10 years ahead." Club América players celebrate a goal during their quarterfinal win over Columbus Crew. (Jim Sabo/ISI Photos via Getty Images) ⚽️ 0 MLS teams The Leagues Cup semifinals are set, and not a single MLS team made the final four. Only Liga MX sides León, Toluca, Monterrey and Club América remain in contention — a fitting conclusion to the first edition of the annual tournament to hold games in Mexico. Streak snapped: The MLS no-show is rather surprising considering the last three champions and runners-up all hailed from the U.S.-based league. Miami beat Nashville in 2023, Columbus beat LAFC in 2024 and Seattle beat Miami in 2025.   📺 TUNE IN BROADCAST BOX SCORE (Michael Reaves/Getty Images) This story is from Yahoo Sports Biz, our new sports business newsletter authored by Dylan Dittrich. 🏀 WNBA: The Indiana Fever have set two ratings records in the last week. Last Thursday's game against Dallas averaged 1.07 million viewers, the most ever for a WNBA broadcast on Prime Video. Then, Sunday's tilt against Chicago averaged 3.31 million viewers on NBC, making it the most-watched game since the league's inaugural weekend in 1997. Only prescription is more Fever: Caitlin Clark and company have entirely rewritten the leaderboards for the most-watched games in WNBA history this season. In addition to the above, their game against the Dream in August was the most-watched game on cable in WNBA history, reaching 2.6 million viewers on ESPN. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images) 🏎️ IndyCar: The Freedom 250 Grand Prix averaged 3.28 million viewers on Fox, becoming the most-watched non-Indianapolis 500 race for the series since before the open-wheel merger in 2008. The strength of spectacle: Per Nielsen, 44% of the race's audience hadn't watched any other IndyCar action this year. The introduction of new viewers is a worthy reward for an extensive investment in the race. It's also more good news for an IndyCar series performing well this season; the average viewership on Fox through 15 races is up 32% from 2025 and 70% from 2024. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images) ⛳️ PGA Tour: Across weekend telecasts on NBC and CBS, the PGA Tour's 2026 regular season tournaments averaged 2.5 million viewers, according to Sports Business Journal's Josh Carpenter. That was a narrow 2% increase over the prior year, when compared on a like-for-like basis using Nielsen's Big Data methodology. 'Yoff and running: The FedEx Cup Playoffs are off to a strong start. The final round of Scottie Scheffler's win at the FedEx St. Jude Championship averaged 3.9 million viewers, making it the tournament's most-watched final round in 13 years. The final round of the BMW Championship averaged 3.85 million viewers on CBS, a 10% improvement over last year and the largest audience for the event since Tiger Woods' 2007 win.   🥊 FIGHT NIGHT THE NEXT MIKE TYSON? (Hayden Hodge/Yahoo Sports) Moses Itauma, 21, has long been hailed as the next Mike Tyson. On Saturday, the British heavyweight prodigy finally gets his chance. Can boxing's next wunderkind live up to a lifetime of expectations? Elliot Worsell, Uncrowned: Call him Moses. It's easier that way. Easier to say, easier to remember, easier to promote. Call him Moses on the fight poster, the billboard and the on-screen graphics and call him Moses when trying to attract either sponsors or the eyes of the public. Simplify him, in other words. Make him a brand, a product. Think of him as one of those superstars whose power is so great they need only their first name. Think Beyoncé. Think Prince. Think Shaq. Think of all the Brazilian soccer players who achieved international fame with just their first name on the back of their shirt, like Romário, Rivaldo, Ronaldo and Neymar. If it can work for them, it can work for you too, Enriko Moses Itauma. That is the view of Itauma's team at least. They, with good reason, sensed they had a superstar on their hands the day Itauma hatched and have started to now nudge him toward the light ahead of his IBF heavyweight title fight against Filip Hrgovic on Saturday. To get him the attention his talent deserves, they have made a conscious effort to simplify Itauma for a mainstream audience. That's why his next fight was billed as "Moses X Hrgovic" on the DAZN ad I saw on the big red bus that passed while I began to write this piece. It's also why, on that same bus, we were greeted with the tagline "Britain's youngest ever world heavyweight champion awaits," and why Mike Tyson, the world's youngest, is someone to whom Itauma, just 21 years of age, is often compared.   📺 VIEWING GUIDE WEEKEND WATCHLIST For the second year in a row, the CFB season is kicking off at Dublin's Aviva Stadium. (Ben McShane/Sportsfile via Getty Images) 🏈 NCAA Football, Week 0 It's been 222 days since the Hoosiers toppled the Hurricanes for their first national championship. Finally, college football is back. Saturday's slate: UNC vs. TCU in Dublin (12pm ET, ESPN); San José State at No. 14 USC (3pm, NBC); NC State at Virginia (3:30pm, ESPN); Jax State at North Dakota State (5:30pm, CBSSN); Sac State at EMU (6:30pm, ESPN+); Hawaii at Stanford (7pm, ACC); New Mexico State at FSU (7pm, CW); Memphis at UNLV (10pm, Fox) ⛳️ Tour Championship The season finale continues at East Lake Golf Club (Fri-Sun, ESPN/Golf/CBS), where $40 million and the title of Tour Champion are up for grabs. Leaderboard: Min Woo Lee, who was struggling entering the playoffs, fired an 8-under 62 to take a two-stroke lead over Viktor Hovland, Chris Gotterup and Collin Morikawa. Scottie Scheffler is among those lurking at 5-under, and the entire field shot at least even par. 🎾 US Open, First Round The year's final grand slam begins on Sunday in Flushing Meadows, with matches beginning at 11am and cycling throughout ESPN's properties. The field is competing for a record $108 million purse, including $5.5 million each for the men's and women's singles champions. The late-summer double: Young Frenchman Arthur Fils is coming off the biggest win of his career in Cincinnati, which could bode well for his chances in New York: Each of the last three men's Cincy champions went on to win the US Open, too (Novak Djokovic in 2023, Jannik Sinner in 2024, Carlos Alcaraz in 2025). ⚾️ Red Sox at Yankees Baseball's biggest rivalry takes center stage this weekend in the Bronx, where Boston (73-60) could possibly pass New York (75-58) for the first wild card. There's a doubleheader tomorrow (1:05pm, MLB; 7:15pm, Fox) and a matinee on Sunday (1:35pm, ESPN+), while tonight's game (7:15pm, Apple) is available in VR for those with Apple Vision Pro headsets. Best of the rest: Mariners at Blue Jays (Fri. 7:15pm, Apple); Rangers at Brewers (Sat. 7:15pm, Fox); Astros at Mets (Sun. 3:10pm, NBC); Reds at Cubs (Sun. 7:20pm, NBC). ⚾️ LLWS, Final Four We're down to the last four in Williamsport, where Curaçao and Japan play in tomorrow's International Championship (12:30pm, ABC), followed by Nevada vs. Ohio in the U.S. Championship (3:30pm, ABC). The winners meet on Sunday (3pm, ABC) in the grand finale. A star is born: Though her team was eliminated on Wednesday, the breakout star of this LLWS was undoubtedly Kinley Rasmus. The daughter of former MLB pitcher Cory Rasmus tied Mo'ne Davis' record for most strikeouts by a girl (14) and broke the record for most hits by a girl (5). More to watch: 🏈 NFL Preseason: Commanders at Ravens (Fri. 6pm, NFL); Bengals at Eagles (Fri. 8pm, CBS); Vikings at Broncos (Fri. 9pm, NFL); Lions at Colts (Sat. 1pm, NFL); Bears at Titans (Sat. 6pm, NFL) … Final weekend. 🏀 WNBA: Sky at Liberty (Sat. 1pm, CBS); Lynx at Dream (Sun. 3pm, NBA) … The final weekend of games before the league takes a 17-day break for the FIBA World Cup. ⚽️ Premier League: Crystal Palace vs. Manchester City (Fri. 3pm, USA); Tottenham vs. Newcastle (Sat. 12:30pm, NBC); Chelsea vs. Brighton (Sun. 9am, Peacock) … Matchday 2. 🏁 NASCAR: Daytona (Sat. 7:30pm, NBC) … Five drivers are fighting for the final three playoff spots in the regular-season finale. 🥊 Boxing: Moses Itauma vs. Filip Hrgović (Sat. 5:30pm ET, DAZN); Chantelle Cameron vs. Mikaela Mayer (Sat. 2pm, ESPN+) … Title fights in England. Plus: 🚴 Vuelta a España: Stages 7-9 (Fri-Sun, Peacock);🥍 PLL: Quarterfinals (Sat. 6pm, ESPN+); 🏁 IndyCar in Milwaukee (Sat. 2:30pm, Fox); ⚽️ MLS: Week 23 (Sat-Sun, Apple); ⚽️ NWSL: Week 23 (Fri-Sun, Prime/ION/ESPN2); ⛳️ LPGA: FM Championship (Fri-Sun, Golf); ⚾️ WPBL (Fri-Sun, ESPN+)   🔎 LET'S PLAY GUESS THE LOGO Question: Can you guess this zoomed in FBS logo? Hint: They won a national championship this century. Answer at the bottom.   📸 THROUGH THE LENS PHOTO FINISH Jackson Goldstone of Canada competes during the Mountainbike World Series in Les Gets, France. (Billy Ceusters/Getty Images) Soaring into the weekend like…   Logo reveal: Florida Gators  

Trump Ditches GOP in Secret Midterm Panic The president is leaving Republicans to sweat it out as the midterms draw near. President Donald Trump is stoking GOP anxiety as he makes himself his party’s midterm mascot while leaving them in the lurch to chase his vanity projects. With less than 70 days until the midterms, the 80-year-old president’s poll numbers are in the basement as voters grow frustrated with his failure to deliver on the promises that propelled him back to the White House. But Trump, apparently unwilling to accept his own unpopularity or the damage it could do to GOP candidates across the country, continues to put himself front and center in the election fight, even headlining a “midterm convention” in Dallas next month. That has Republican strategists, desperate to keep the races focused on individual candidates rather than Trump, on edge, the Daily Beast’s Political Correspondent Farrah Tomazin said on The Daily Beast Podcast. “A lot of strategists that I’ve spoken to are asking, ‘Why on earth are we doing this? Why are we not sort of, you know, getting out there and really sort of localizing... these debates?’” she told the Daily Beast’s Global Editorial Director Nico Hines. But even as Trump makes himself the center of attention, he has appeared more interested in his vanity projects than helping Republicans win. “Not only has he not delivered, but he’s also shifted the focus so much to himself that his priorities are shot, and people can see that,” Tomazin said. “I mean, this morning he spent the entire morning... posting on Truth Social images of his vanity projects: the various fountains that he’s, you know, spruced up in Washington, D.C.” Tomazin noted that Trump had promised to usher in a “Golden Age” by bringing down prices and getting the U.S. out of foreign entanglements, but instead launched a quagmire of a war against Iran, sending gas prices soaring, with inflation now higher than when he took office.. “It’s like... you promised me all this. It’s not only not happening, but you’re also now focusing your attention on expensive projects like a White House ballroom, a helipad, a big arch in honor of yourself... and not talking enough about my problems,” Tomazin said, channeling a voter’s perspective. The billionaire president, however, has made little secret of his indifference toward winning over voters ahead of the midterms, while delivering lines like “I love the inflation,” and “I don’t care about the midterms.” While Americans have been left footing the bill for soaring energy costs, Trump has benefited from the surge in energy stocks fueled by his war and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, with his oil and gas holdings potentially gaining as much as $15.5 million this year, according to a new report from Democrats on the congressional Joint Economic Committee. When reached for comment, White House spokesman Davis Ingle defended Trump’s building fixations and claimed the president was lowering gas prices. “President Trump can walk and chew gum at the same time,” Ingle told the Daily Beast. “As a result, the Trump administration continues to deliver on the president’s affordability agenda by lowering drug prices, reshoring American jobs, lowering gas prices, and more. Thanks to the Builder-in-Chief, no other president has done more to beautify our Nation’s interior than President Trump. From restoring our treasured landmarks, which had suffered years of abuse and vandalism, to cleaning our parks and the Reflecting Pool, President Trump’s bold vision is ensuring the People’s House and our Nation’s Capital will be properly glorified and remain in excellent condition for generations to come.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-ditches-gop-in-secret-midterm-panic/?

This Is Why Trump Surrounds Himself With Idiots The administration’s incomparable incompetence stems from the commander in chief. Donald Trump’s choice to raise up incompetent sycophants across his administration is an intentional one, according to his longtime biographer. Appearing on the Inside Trump’s Head podcast, author Michael Wolff said that the second Trump administration’s overwhelming ineptitude stems from the 80-year-old president’s need to be the smartest in the room. “People have a very hard time... understanding the full sense of a man who is the President of the United States, who is—as he has said about so many other people—dumb as a brick himself,” Wolff told host Joanna Coles. “All of these issues, he does not have the information or the intelligence to appreciate and to cope with and to address. He just doesn’t.” “And couple that with the fact that he doesn’t give anyone else around him who might, the independence and the wherewithal to deal with those issues,” he added. Coles brought up Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and his questionable decisions to fire seasoned military leaders amid the nearly six-month quagmire that the president’s war with Iran has become. “What could possibly be in it for Pete Hegseth to fire these people?” she asked. “I understand wanting to bring your own team in, but it’s not like he comes in with a ton of four-star generals that he wants to put in place.”“Look at it this way—you’re in this job. You’re underqualified. You’re unqualified to hold this job. Everybody knows it,” Wolff explained. “And many of those people who you have to rely on treat you as someone who is unqualified to hold this job. So you are yourself in a constant state of absolute insecurity and unhappiness.” “So what do you do? Well, you... get rid of the people who think you’re a lummox and who... almost borderline openly talk about your stupidity and your... failure to be able to do this job,” he said. The author said that the issue is “binary”—saying that one either quits or gets rid of everyone who believes them to be unqualified. “That’s one... of the management reasons why it is very bad to put someone into a position who... does not, and will not, have the respect of the people who work for him,” he explained. Wolff said to think of Hegseth “as a kind of mini Donald Trump,” in that the secretary’s staffing decisions mirror the president’s for the exact same reason. “Because he can’t have people who are clearly smarter than he is. He can’t have people, as in the first administration, who went around saying, ‘My God, what an idiot,’” the author said. “He understood that undermined him, to say the least.” Reached for comment, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Daily Beast in a frequently recycled statement: “Michael Wolff is a professional scumbag and serial liar whose brain has been completely warped by his severe and incurable disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/this-is-why-trump-surrounds-himself-with-idiots-michael-wolff/? ps:EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!

Putin Given Humiliating Warning in Secret Meeting More details about CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s shock trip to Moscow have emerged. CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s secret trip to Moscow involved telling one of Vladimir Putin’s top officials that Russia needs to end the war in Ukraine before its economic situation worsens, according to a report. Ratcliffe met with Aleksandr Bortnikov, director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), to deliver a warning that Russia’s military and economic situation will only get worse unless it negotiates a peace deal with Ukraine to end the four-and-a-half-year conflict, sources told The New York Times. CIA analysts fear that Putin’s advisers are not providing the Russian leader with frank updates about how the invasion is going, as Ukraine continues to bombard the country with wave after wave of drone attacks. Some officials believe that having Ratcliffe deliver the bleak message himself would lead the Russian president to take the warning more seriously than if it were delivered through normal diplomatic channels, according to the Times. For years, Trump and his advisers believed that a Russian victory over Ukraine was inevitable. The Trump administration has also scaled back the amount of military aid it has sent to Ukraine as the war drags on. However, Kyiv has changed tactics, fighting back with long-range drone strikes targeting Russia’s economy and fuel supplies that have put Moscow on the back foot. This includes repeated attacks on major Russian oil refineries, which are used to fund Moscow’s war efforts. Ukraine has also targeted warehouses and facilities belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, which is often described as the country’s equivalent of Amazon. Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow this week came after the CIA director suggested that Ukraine was getting the upper hand in the conflict because of its use of drones. Speaking to the Times in June, Ratcliffe said that the life expectancy of a Russian soldier on the front line in Ukraine was less than 35 minutes. “Much of the reason is technology and how drones have become super-efficient, low-cost killing machines,” Ratcliffe said. Ratcliffe also noted that Russia had gained only about 1 percent of Ukrainian territory since he became CIA director 18 months ago, while simultaneously suffering major losses on the battlefield. It was previously reported that Ratcliffe’s trip on Tuesday was to warn Russia not to launch an unprovoked attack on NATO countries. It is feared that Putin could lash out and test the resolve of the military alliance by launching an attack ranging from a cyberattack to an incursion into a neighboring country. Any scenario in which Putin attacks a member of the military alliance could have devastating consequences around the world. Under NATO’s Article 5, an attack against one NATO country is considered an attack against all 32 allied members, including the U.S. On Thursday, The Washington Post also reported that the Kremlin considers the U.S. significantly weaker because of the Iran war and dwindling weapons stockpiles. It is feared that Putin could use this as an excuse to provoke U.S. allies in Europe, believing that any response would be severely hindered.A source told the Post that Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow was “less about Putin being in a corner” and more because Russia believes “we are depleted and can’t intervene.” Trump, who has downplayed the significance of Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow, said he is not concerned that Putin will attack a NATO country. “There is no problem,” Trump told Axios on Thursday. “Ratcliffe sees his Russian counterpart once every six months or once every year. They have a very good relationship. There was no message, and there was nothing unusual.” The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the CIA for comment. https://www.thedailybeast.com/putin-given-humiliating-ukraine-war-warning-in-secret-john-ratcliffe-meeting/?

Secret White House Strain Exposed as Trump’s Frustration Grows 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is not a happy place. A prominent journalist has pulled back the curtain on a White House gripped by tension and led by a president who is lashing out at his staff more and more. Maggie Haberman of The New York Times, who appeared on CNN as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrapped up her final day, was asked about morale in the West Wing amid what anchor Laura Coates called “a lot of midterm anxiety.” “It’s not a happy environment, by any of the reporting that we have,” said Haberman—whose reporting is so effective that Donald Trump has given her the nickname “Maggot Haberman.” “The president has been in a pretty frustrated mood for a while about Iran, which, again, is of his own making.” The Iran conflict kicked off without congressional approval on Feb. 28. Trump said it would last six weeks maximum; it has been exactly six months. Haberman, who co-wrote the book Regime Change about Trump’s second term with fellow Times reporter Jonathan Swan, said Trump “does not have the patience for long-term diplomacy or having these lengthy conversations to try to get out of a situation.” She noted Trump had expected the conflict in Iran “to be a quick war,” but instead the administration is contending with “a further depletion of munitions” and near-constant leaks. “He is frustrated about leaks and on and on and on,” she said. “It is very much not a happy place right now.” Speaking separately on MS NOW, Haberman said Trump has been “lashing out” at his staff, and that “most people have decided that they want to go do something else.” With Democrats projected to retake the House and possibly the Senate in November, she suggested the mood could sour further still. “He is not in a great place with his staff, according to everyone we talked to,” she said. “He is lashing out a lot, which tends to happen when things are not going well.” The White House did not dispute the substance of Haberman’s reporting so much as attack her directly. “Maggie Haberman of the Failing New York Times constantly speaks like she’s a Trump psychologist when in reality she just has a creepy obsession with the President and clings onto him for relevance,” White House Spokesman Davis Ingle said on Thursday. “It’s been very sad to watch for years.” The Daily Beast has also approached the White House for a statement. Trump has not named a replacement for Leavitt, whose last day was Thursday. Unlike other departures from the administration, sources told the Daily Mail that Trump did not want her to go. “Trump really didn’t want her to leave, as he actually trusts her and doesn’t like having to deal with new people in his circle when he wants to focus on getting stuff done in his time left in office,” an insider told the tabloid. Haberman echoed that assessment on CNN, saying Leavitt “had his trust in a way that most people did not in term one who served in that role, the press secretary job.” Trump has said Leavitt will stay on as his “top outside adviser” and an “influential voice” within the Republican Party heading into the midterms, as she returns to MAGA Inc., the political action committee where she previously worked as spokesperson. https://www.thedailybeast.com/secret-white-house-strain-exposed-as-trumps-frustration-grows/?

Trump Humiliated on His Favorite Network After Fuming Rant Fox News’ Bret Baier corrected the president on “what was said” during a previous segment on “Special Report.” Donald Trump had to be called out live on air by Fox News after the 80-year-old president had a meltdown over the network’s reporting on his Iran war. During Thursday’s Special Report, the program’s chief correspondent, Jonathan Hunt, described how there had been “no significant developments” between the U.S. and Iran to end the now six-month conflict. Hunt also noted, accurately, that Trump had confirmed there were no plans for talks between the two countries. Trump, who spends an extraordinary amount of time watching cable news in the White House, then blasted Hunt and Special Report anchor Bret Baier in a Truth Social rant. “Jonathan Hunt of FoxNews did a particularly inaccurate report on the Failing Islamic Republic of Iran. I don’t want to meet, they do,” Trump wrote. “In fact, they are begging to make a deal. Bret Baier should straighten out his flunkies, for a change! President DJT.” After showing Trump’s Truth Social post on screen, Baier then humiliated the president and corrected him on several fronts. “First of all, Jonathan Hunt is not a flunky. He’s a great reporter,” Baier said. “Second of all, Mr. President, we didn’t say you wanted to meet. In fact, we played a soundbite that you didn’t want to meet, and there are no negotiations. “We said that Treasury Secretary Bessent is hoping to meet with G20 countries to increase the pressure on Iran, and that Gulf state allies, including Qatar, are inside Tehran trying to get Iran to agree to concessions,” Baier added. “That was what was said.” Trump’s war with the Middle Eastern country has dragged on for six months with no real end in sight. The president’s meltdown at Fox News for stating that there isn’t even currently a plan to try to end the war came after he shared some AI slop on Truth Social declaring “Mission Accomplished” in Iran. Trump’s post ironically attacked former President George W. Bush, who controversially declared “Mission Accomplished” in relation to the war in Iraq during a speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in May 2003. The U.S. would continue to be at war with Iraq for another eight years before withdrawing its troops in 2011. Democratic California Rep. Ted Lieu was among those who mocked Trump online for declaring victory in Iran without any reason or justification. “This is the white flag of surrender by Trump,” Lieu posted. “He’s not even trying anymore. He’s now simply declaring to his MAGA base ‘mission accomplished’ in Iran.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-humiliated-on-his-favorite-network-fox-news-after-fuming-iran-war-rant/?

Trump Bails on 9/11 Ceremony for Trumpiest of Reasons The president had planned on marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in person at Ground Zero. President Donald Trump plans to bypass a ceremony in New York to mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks after being told he could not make a speech. Trump, 80, had his team perform advance site visits to Manhattan’s National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the memorial space where the Twin Towers once stood, two people with knowledge of the events told The New York Times. However, since 2012, politicians have not been allowed to deliver speeches at anniversary events at the site known as Ground Zero, with the museum explaining that the rule was intended to ensure that attendees could focus on “honoring the victims and their families in a way free of politics.” The Times claimed Trump’s interest in speaking at Ground Zero on Sept. 11 had been conveyed to memorial planners in recent weeks, according to three sources. According to two sources, the president will now mark the solemn anniversary at the Pentagon, which was also attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. A total of 2,996 people were killed during the attacks that day—including the 19 hijackers. Trump will head to the Pentagon following a midterm political convention in Dallas. The Times said administration officials may possibly pay tribute to 9/11 victims during the Republican Party’s convention, which runs on Sept. 9 and 10. The president is due to fly out to his golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, on Sept. 12 for the Irish Open tournament, which runs between Sept. 10 and 13. The publication notes that flying out from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland would be quicker than leaving from New York or New Jersey, where air and motor traffic is more congested. Vice President JD Vance is expected to attend the Manhattan memorial on behalf of the Trump administration. The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum for comment. Trump’s last attendance at a Ground Zero ceremony was in 2024, alongside Vance, President Joe Biden, and Vice President Kamala Harris. No officials made formal speeches at the ceremony, in keeping with the museum’s policy. The 25th anniversary ceremony will include six moments of silence to mark when both World Trade Center towers were struck, and the times of the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Family members will read the names of the loved ones they lost in the tragedy. The 9/11 Memorial and Museum did not address Trump’s plans in a statement, but told the New York Post the president is “always welcome” to attend the ceremony. “For more than a decade, the ceremony at Ground Zero has featured only family members solemnly reading the names of their loved ones. Elected officials of both parties have borne witness to this solemn occasion over the years, and we have been honored that every living President, including President Trump, has attended. Of course, President Trump is always welcome,” the statement read. Weeks after launching his war with Iran, Trump said in March he had “predicted” that “Osama Bin Laden would knock out the World Trade Center,” a year before the attacks. “I said, ‘You better get him. He’s a bad guy.’ I watched him be interviewed one time, and I said, ‘That’s a bad guy. You’d better get him. One year before exactly. I wrote it in a book,” Trump insisted. “You can even check, about a year before the World Trade Center came down.” During his first term in office, Trump had made the same claim about having warned about the threat posed by the al Qaeda founder. But according to a CNN fact check, Trump’s 2000 book The America We Deserve only mentioned Bin Laden once and did not call for him to be killed or warn of any attack. ps:What a pathetic leader!!!!!

Democrats go on the offense, Republicans play defense after Hope Florida grand jury report leak Florida Democrats went on the offensive Thursday against Republican leaders after the release of a blistering statewide grand jury report that found $10 million in Medicaid funds were “misappropriated” and wound up being used for “political activities.” https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/08/27/democrats-fired-up-republicans-on-the-defense-after-hope-florida-grand-jury-report-leaked-to-the-press/? DeSantis administration moving to regulate AI from pre-K to Ph.D. In concert, state bodies governing public pre-K through Ph.D. students are implementing policies addressing safety and classroom use of artificial intelligence. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/08/28/desantis-administration-moving-to-regulate-ai-from-pre-k-to-phd/? Gun policy emerges as an early flashpoint in Florida governor’s race Byron Donalds says that the choice between himself and David Jolly for Florida governor “could not be clearer,” and that’s certainly the case when it comes to comparing the two major candidates positions regarding the regulation of guns and the people who use them. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/08/27/gun-policy-emerges-as-an-early-flashpoint-in-florida-governors-race/? Pediatric group wins early legal battle against DeSantis administration and its Medicaid rates An administrative judge has refused to dismiss the state’s largest pediatric care provider’s allegations the DeSantis administration miscalculated Medicaid rates to cover the costs of applied behavioral analysis for children with autism. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/08/27/pediatric-group-wins-early-legal-battle-against-desantis-administration-and-its-medicaid-rates/?

August 28, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Authorities in Nepal are warning rescuers that more flooding may be on its way. Let’s start there. Atul Loke for The New York Times After the deluge As emergency workers flew helicopters up steep Himalayan river valleys yesterday to find survivors of a flood that killed more than 500 people and left more than 1,000 missing, scientists began to investigate its cause. They’ve been looking at satellite imagery and seismological data. The likely culprit: A gigantic landslide high in the mountains led to a glacial collapse that sent millions of tons of ice and rock into the valleys below it, pulverizing them into mud and water. The slurry burst dams and turned rivers into hydraulic rams. “The rock that the glacier was sitting on collapsed,” one scientist said. The scale of the disaster is staggering. It’s as if 1,000 Empire State Buildings exploded at the same time and the debris coursed down a canyon. The path of destruction ran for more than 40 miles. It washed away roads, cut bridges in half, overcame buildings and swallowed people whole. On the ground The Nepal Army carrying young children to a rescue helicopter to help their parents board. Atul Loke for The New York Times Anupreeta Das, who covers South Asia, was in Nepal yesterday, flying with rescuers to interview shocked survivors. They told her about the torrents of mud that brought horror into their lives. Here’s what she heard from a resident of a village close to Nepal’s border with Tibet: “They all died, and I lived,” said Dawa Lama, 45, starting to weep as he recounted how, just before 9 a.m. on Wednesday, he had heard a thunderclap, and then felt a breeze. Before he knew it, an enormous wave of muddy water had slammed into his home of 12 years in the border village of Timure, carrying away not just his belongings but also his wife and their two daughters, 7 and 8. Read more from the survivors here. Our changing climate Source: Satellite image by Copernicus and Landsat via Google | By The New York Times Scientists may still be putting together the exact causes of this week’s floods, but they are certain that climate change is heating the Himalayas and increasing the risks of disaster. Here’s why: A warming planet is melting the region’s permafrost, the mixture of frozen soil and rocks that has sat below its glaciers for millennia. Losing it leaves mountains and glaciers unstable — prone to landslides and collapse. “As the glaciers retreat and the permafrost melts, we see that these slopes become more susceptible to failure,” one scientist who studies glaciers told The Times, adding, “There’s a very straight link between climate change and these types of disasters.” More on the flooding Read why climate change is making flooding disasters more likely. See maps and images of the devastation. In The Kathmandu Post, a journalist wrote about seeing his childhood village disappear. MORNING READS Getty Images We’ve made these links free for you. Blended refreshers: Your favorite Starbucks drink may be making your barista break out in hives. Iceland Eclipse festival: Meet the most optimistic people in the world. Your pick: The most clicked story in The Morning yesterday was a video of the flooding in Nepal. LAKE ONTARI … OH! President Trump signed an executive order yesterday renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America, effective immediately. The lake sits between the United States and Canada, so it’s a symbolic target amid the trade war between the two countries. (Trump said yesterday that Canada “treats us very badly.”) Legally speaking, the order — like Trump’s earlier one to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America — likely requires only federal entities to recognize the change. Other countries don’t have to recognize it. Nor do Americans and their businesses, even those within spitting distance of Lake … whatever you call it. (The Times will continue to call it Ontario.) Amanda Miller, 45, owns Lake Ontario Realty, which has helped people buy and sell waterfront properties in the area for over 20 years. By yesterday afternoon, her phone was blowing up. Everyone wanted to know: Would it be “Lake America Realty” now? No. It’s nothing personal, Miller told me; business is business. Lake Ontario Realty is well-known in the area around Chaumont, N.Y., and rebranding for no reason is “the worst thing you can do,” she said. — Evan Gorelick Related: A Canadian official said the U.S. had raised issues with the country’s use of the French language in trade negotiations — and that if the Trump administration changed course, trade talks could potentially resume. THE LATEST NEWS Foreign Policy John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, made a secretive visit to Moscow. He urged the Russians to end their war against Ukraine before their military and economic situation gets worse. The Pentagon will withdraw about 200 U.S. troops from Nigeria. They were deployed to help fight Islamist militants who President Trump said were attacking Christians. Politics The New York Times Angie Nixon, who scored a surprise victory in Florida’s Democratic Senate primary, made pink the signature color of her campaign. Our chief fashion critic, Vanessa Friedman, examines the choice. Click above to watch. The administration of Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, “misappropriated” $10 million in taxpayer money by diverting it to a charity tied to his wife, according to a leaked Florida grand jury report. An ICE agent facing charges in Minnesota was released from jail in Texas after Republican officials there blocked his extradition. The Trump administration plans to expand deportation flights to Haiti. Around the World King Harald V of Norway at his coronation in 1991. Inge Gjellesvik/NTB, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images King Harald V of Norway, whose 35-year reign opened an ancient monarchy to a contentious cast of family connections, including a celebrity shaman and Jeffrey Epstein, died at 89. Crown Prince Haakon, his only son, will become monarch. The success of progressive candidates in the United States is inspiring leftists in Latin America. Six months into war, Iran’s regime stands and American goals remain unmet, our diplomatic correspondent writes. Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” for his role in Europe’s deadliest massacre since World War II, died at 83. Ratko Mladic in Sarajevo in 1994. He was captured in 2011 and put on trial for genocide and war crimes. Pascal Guyot/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Other Big Stories Two air traffic controllers at LaGuardia Airport left work early the night a jet collided with a fire truck in March, killing two people. The F.A.A. is moving to fire them. The Trump administration acted illegally when it barred Anthropic from working with the U.S. government, a federal judge ruled. Times Exclusive: Mark Zuckerberg publicly criticized Anthropic even as his company, Meta, has become one of Anthropic’s biggest customers. ASK THE MORNING (ABOUT POLLING) Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat running for a second term in Pennsylvania, holds a 16-point lead over his Republican opponent, Stacy Garrity, a New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena poll found. Morning readers often ask how The Times’s polling works. Here’s a question we received from Jean Oswald in Rochester, N.Y.: How do we know polls are truly showing the breadth and width of Americans’ feelings? I don’t answer my phone when the number is unrecognizable. Perhaps many people like me are not polled. We asked William Davis, our director of election data analytics, to answer: Jean, you’re not alone. In our last national poll, we placed 250,000 calls to 100,000 people in order to get 1,500 responses. The question is whether you and other people like you persistently pick up the phone less frequently than groups that are demographically and attitudinally different. Pollsters have some ways of fixing those issues. They can call more people in groups who are less likely to respond. Or they can adjust the weight of individuals in the poll so groups are correctly represented compared with the census or other sources. But it’s hard. We know that voters who are engaged with the news respond to polls at higher rates, but we don’t know what the right number of highly engaged news consumers is. As a result, polls can be off if, for example, a candidate like Donald Trump is singularly able to get people who don’t pay much attention to the news to vote for him in overwhelming numbers. OPINIONS Trump’s spat with Canada is proof that America is in decline, Frank Bruni and Bret Stephens argue in this week’s edition of The Conversation. Seeking help is not just for moments of life-or-death crisis. It’s also crucial to becoming successful, Angela Duckworth writes. Get access to five locked games. Save 75% on your first year of a New York Times Games subscription. Get full access to Wordle, Spelling Bee, Crossplay, the Crossword and more. TODAY’S NUMBER At Davoll’s General Store. Jillian Freyer for The New York Times 1793 — That is the year Davoll’s General Store opened for business in South Dartmouth, Mass. It’s living history. Loiter and linger as long as you like. The photos are great. SPORTS Advertising controversy: Good Good Golf lost its partnership with Callaway after an ad from the online platform that depicted its male co-founder shoving a female employee to the ground. N.F.L.: The Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs was charged with two misdemeanor counts of battery and criminal damage to property stemming from an incident at his Wisconsin home. RECIPE OF THE DAY Sarah Anne Ward for The New York Times The chef Mario Carbone taught me how to make these pork chops in cherry-pepper sauce a number of years ago and — marone! — what a deliciously pure taste of Italian American cuisine they are. This time of year, with cherry peppers ripening on the vine, I make the dish with fresh peppers instead of the pickled ones called for in the recipe. If you do that, add a splash of lemon juice or white wine vinegar to the sauce at the end, for acidity. PERSON OF INTEREST Peter Grainger at home in Cambridgeshire. Ellie Smith for The New York Times Peter Grainger is a British crime writer who self-published his way into prominence. His main character, the independent-minded detective D.C. Smith, plays things straight. “One of the things you pick up when you read successful crime novels is how dysfunctional the police are,” he told Sarah Lyall, who writes about lots of things at The Times but is particularly great on thrillers and mysteries. “They’re having breakdowns, they’re alcoholics, they’re in abusive relationships. I thought, ‘This trope has taken over the genre and I don’t want to do that. I will do the opposite.’” Read about the best literary detective you’ve never heard of. More on culture Take in the scene at the first night of Harry Styles’s 30-day residency at Madison Square Garden. He rarely appeared to sweat. The U.S. embassy in the Dominican Republic recently removed a work of art by Kehinde Wiley, perhaps best known for his portrait of Barack Obama. The decision wasn’t about art, writes Jason Farago, our art critic. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Find your next book based on what you loved last. The editors of our Book Review make the task easy. Just click. Listen to a new track from the Jayhawks, “Mr. Lincoln.” The band’s latest album, “Sanctuary Park,” is out today. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was motorway. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections, Crossplay and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times and me. See you tomorrow. — Sam 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

Stars and Stripes publisher, editor and reporter sue Pentagon to challenge their firings WASHINGTON (AP) — Three staff members from the Stars and Stripes military news outlet are suing to challenge their recent firings by the Pentagon, accusing the Trump administration of violating their First Amendment free speech rights to speak out against government interference in their work. https://apnews.com/article/stars-stripes-pentagon-censorship-media-lawsuit-59a0b5ecb86b6c6fd2321176ee95c5dc? Judge says Pentagon’s measures against Anthropic were ‘illegal and baseless’ A federal judge has ruled in favor of artificial intelligence company Anthropic in its legal battle against the Pentagon after the government labeled the company as a supply chain risk earlier this year. https://apnews.com/article/anthropic-pentagon-lawsuit-supply-chain-risk-f15e3c30186385e73e72bee82d85b05c?

Six months on, the Iran war has changed the Middle East, but not in the way its architects had hoped When they attacked Iran on Feb. 28, the U.S. and Israel hoped to topple its clerical leadership and replace it with a pro-Western government. But the Islamic Republic survived the assassination of its top leaders and weeks of heavy bombing, and found a potent form of leverage in the Strait of Hormuz. Read more. Why this matters: Iran is now determined to exert permanent control over the strait, to use it to ward off future attacks and secure other concessions, while giving no ground on its disputed nuclear program. Meanwhile Gulf Arab nations saw worrying gaps open up in the American security umbrella they have relied on for decades — and some are looking at alternatives. Israel has once again thrashed its enemies without defeating them, and is at risk of a generational rupture with the U.S., its closest ally. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump used to say he saw a quick end to his Iran war. Six months later, he claims he’s in no hurry More Mideast developments Republicans face a midterm verdict as Iran war drags on months longer than Trump promised Exclusive: US Patriot missile stocks in Europe are ‘beyond critical’ due to Iran war, officials say

Judge questions why Kennedy Center is moving so quickly to return Trump’s name to building During a Thursday hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper asked why the center needed to begin inscribing the president’s name on the institution's facade as soon as Sept. 8. Read more. Why this matters: President Donald Trump has spent much of his second term reshaping Washington to his liking. The Kennedy Center is a rare stumbling block in that effort after Cooper ruled in May that Trump’s name was added to the building illegally, ordering it to be removed. Trump and his allies, however, have refused to let that be the final word. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump administration starts building border wall project in Arizona over tribe’s objections White House construction contributed to radio problems that let Trump copter come close to jet Trump administration relied on flawed logic to justify scrapping vehicle emission rules, study says Judge again blocks Trump mail ballot executive order in ruling that’s likely to be swiftly appealed ICE officer’s release from Texas jail opens a new front in the escalating fight over extradition The Kremlin says the CIA director held talks in Moscow with his intelligence counterparts Exclusive: RFK Jr. said a Samoa trip had nothing to do with vaccines. New documents refute that

Trump signs order renaming Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America’ in the United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to update the lake’s name in the U.S. geographic naming service. Trump cannot force Canada to follow along, however. Read more. Why this matters: The president has been floating the idea of the name change in recent days as the U.S. announced it was imposing 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods over the weekend after talks between the countries broke down. Canadian officials dismissed Trump's move. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the move, invoking the lake’s Indigenous roots and noting that the name predates both the Canadian Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ WATCH: Trump signs order Trump says the US doesn’t need Canada. The economy says otherwise FACT FOCUS: Could Canada leave US cities in the dark as part of the trade war? Not likely Quebec’s governing party names Trump its ‘real adversary’ as election begins Canada is bolstering its defense industry as US relations fray. A boom is on for local contractors

Trump’s mail voting plan gets held up A federal judge in Boston has temporarily blocked the US Postal Service from carrying out a plan, issued under an executive order from President Trump, that could restrict mail voting. Under the new rules, states would have to provide USPS with lists of mail voters, while ballots would need envelopes with unique barcodes that allow them to be automatically tracked. The administration says the requirements are intended to aid law enforcement investigations. Democratic-led states and voting rights groups challenged the rules, and a judge granted them a two-week restraining order Thursday night. + Read more: Judge pauses USPS plan to implement Trump’s new mail voting restrictions

FDA approves updated Covid-19 vaccines Vaccines from Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer/BioNTech received federal approval this week. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images) The FDA has signed off on updated Covid-19 vaccines for all adults 65 and older, as well as certain younger people at higher risk of severe illness. While the CDC has yet to make an official recommendation for this year’s vaccines, most medical organizations recommend getting one because the shots target circulating variants as protection from previous doses wanes. Covid cases remain relatively low, but CDC data shows test positivity nearing 5% for the first time since February, with rates climbing in every state. The updated vaccines should begin arriving at pharmacies and doctors’ offices in September. + Read more: FDA approves updated Covid-19 vaccines for many Americans

The race to rescue survivors Nepal and China have resumed rescue operations in areas devastated by flash flooding, after a pause sparked by fears a barrier lake could unleash another deluge. Residents in threatened areas were seen moving to higher ground, but officials on both sides of the border have since said the danger has receded. At least 489 people have died in Nepal, while dozens of Americans and other foreign nationals are among at least 1,300 people still unaccounted for. A new analysis also found that Wednesday’s surge of water and mud traveled nearly 14 miles in under seven minutes, slamming into towns at speeds of up to 120 mph. + Live updates: Nepal-China flooding latest + In pictures: Deadly flooding wipes out villages + Video: ‘My friends are unreachable’: A CNN director of news who was born and raised in Nepal speaks out 🛰️ New satellite images of Syapru Besi, Nepal, reveal the extent of the devastation caused by Wednesday's catastrophic flash flooding. Nearly 600 people died and almost 2,500 remain missing. Get the latest.

Can Trump actually rename Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’? The Toronto skyline is visible across Lake Ontario from Fort Niagara State Park in Youngstown, New York, on Tuesday. (Adrian Kraus/AP) President Donald Trump is threatening to further escalate his trade war with Canada if the US’ northern neighbor refuses to back down. In the past week, the US imposed 50% tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of Canadian goods. Canada responded with retaliatory tariffs of its own. Then on Thursday, after trade negotiations between the two countries collapsed, Trump signed an executive order to change the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America,” effective immediately. The president does have the authority to determine how the US government refers to geographic landmarks, but he can’t force other countries to adopt the new name. Canada, which shares the lake with the US, is not particularly interested in the rebrand — and has no plans to play along. Prime Minister Mark Carney responded by pointing out that the name Lake Ontario dates back more than 400 years, adding that Canadians will call it Lake Ontario “then, now and always.” Beyond the back-and-forth, the clash is revealing the limits of the presidential pen: Yes, Trump’s executive order can change a name on paper, but making it stick is another matter. + Read more: Can Trump actually rename Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’? + Meanwhile: Canadian council considers changing street named after Trump to Taco Avenue

🐊 1 swamp thing: Return of gator hunting Alligator hunting in bayou waters in Terrebonne Parish near Houma, La., in 2019. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images Louisiana is reopening gator hunting for the first time in more than 60 years following a resurgence from endangered status, Axios New Orleans' Chelsea Brasted writes. The big picture: The state's gators had been hunted since the 1800s, eventually resulting in a severely depleted population. Louisiana banned gator hunting in 1962 to allow the species a chance to naturally rebound. It worked. And a strategy of targeted farming and limited hunting helped alligators make a "full recovery," according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

⚠️ Climate catastrophe risk rising Houses lie deluged in sludge after massive floods in Nepal this week. More than 390 people have been killed along the Nepal-China border, with more than 1,400 missing. Photo: Prabin Ranabhat/AFP via Getty Images Scientists have long warned that the world will experience more intense extreme weather events, including heat waves, storms, floods and droughts. But scenarios that once seemed like the realm of fiction are now discussed as a possibility, even an inevitability, AP writes. "The risk is that people just think you are exaggerating," said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the California Institute for Water Resources. "It's the 'Boy Who Cried Wolf' problem. Sometimes wolves are real. If it's outside the door, wouldn't you want to know?" Keep reading.