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Hegseth estimates Iran war has cost $37.5 billion Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the new estimate, up from earlier assessments, while facing fiery questions at a Senate hearing Tuesday. Read more. Why this matters: Hegseth and other officials appeared as Republicans prepare a $95 billion package to fund the military, along with other White House priorities including farm aid and voting law changes. Hegseth said the supplemental war funding is an “urgent, necessary” injection of money. The hearing came days after the Pentagon announced that three more American service members have died in the conflict, bringing the U.S. death toll to 17, and that more than 100 have been injured since early July. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ US and Iran attacks rage as officials question whether diplomacy can stop march toward war resuming Trump will attend the dignified transfer of 4 US service members killed in the Middle East What to know about Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, home to underground nuclear site threatened by Trump Trump approves nuclear agreement that may allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium, 2 AP sources say NYC can’t arrest Netanyahu but the federal government should, Mamdani says

The high priest bore sin or carried it away: "And it shall be upon Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD." KJV, Lev. 28:38 "It shall be on Aaron’s forehead, and Aaron shall take on himself any guilt incurred in the holy offering that the Israelites consecrate as their sacred donations; it shall always be on his forehead, in order that they may find favor before the LORD." NRSV, Lev 28:38 This is apparently a reference to the DoA service. The context refers to the "holy place," not the "holy of holies." Sometimes, the "holy place" refers to what we usually call the "most holy place." In this passage, the expression, "tabernacle of the congregation" refers to the first apartment. So instead of the "holy" and "most holy place," we have the "holy place" and the "tabernacle of the congregation." Same is said in Leviticus 16:16, 17, 20, 23. The "holy place" and the "tabernacle of the congregation" are mentioned. Leviticus 16:2 describes the "most holy place" as "the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat." Verse 3 says simply "the holy place."

July 22, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. I’m going to start today with something really gross. (Sorry, it’s important.) Claire Merchlinsky/The New York Times; Photographs via Getty Dirty lettuce People across the country are looking at their lettuce fearfully these days. They’re scared of their raspberries. They’re anxious that the cilantro on their tacos is going to knock them down, potentially for a long time. That little iceberg salad that comes with your meal on a flight west? Hard pass. This collective freakout is tied to a summer surge in cases of cyclosporiasis, the intestinal illness caused by a parasite that travels in human feces and can end up in our food supply. As you may have heard (and fixated on), we’re in the middle of the largest recorded outbreak of the disease in United States history — more than 6,000 people in Michigan alone have gotten sick so far. Alice Callahan and Caroline Hopkins Legaspi, reporters on our Well desk, have been covering the cyclospora outbreak since it began. Yesterday, I reached out to them for guidance and, I hoped, a little reassurance. Sam: Let’s start with dinner. What’s safe to consume, besides cigarettes and bourbon? Alice Callahan: Heat kills cyclospora, so anything cooked to at least 158 degrees Fahrenheit is safe. But you still have plenty of options for fresh produce. Firm fruits and vegetables like melon and cucumbers that can be scrubbed with a brush under running water and peeled before eating are much less likely to harbor the parasite. Previous outbreaks also offer clues about how to reduce your risk of exposure. They have almost always been caused by lettuce or salad mixes, raspberries, basil or cilantro — and, sometimes, snap peas or snow peas. Culprits tend to be fresh produce often harvested by hand and consumed raw. Outbreaks are also typically linked back to large suppliers, rather than farmers' markets or backyard gardens. Those local sources may be a safer bet this summer. Your reporting has frequently mentioned Taylor Farms. Has cyclospora been traced back to any produce not produced by that company? Caroline Hopkins Legaspi: As of now, no. But we can’t interpret that to mean that other products are in the clear. Traceback investigations are very difficult and time consuming, and we may be looking at a number of disparate cyclospora outbreaks with different sources. There’s strong epidemiological evidence linking the Midwest-centered outbreak to iceberg lettuce that Taylor Farms sourced from central Mexico. But some other states are seeing their own cases increase, which could be unrelated. Iceberg lettuce. Associated Press Yikes. What steps can people take to stay safe? Alice: First, check your fridge. If you purchased Marketside bagged iceberg or shredded lettuce from Walmart recently, throw it out. Those products were part of a recall of potentially contaminated iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms. Taylor also sent the affected lettuce to a number of food service distributors and establishments, including Sysco and Taco Bell, but the company says it is now off the market. Second, health officials recommend purchasing whole heads of lettuce, removing the outer two to three layers and rinsing the inner leaves well under running water. Bagged lettuce is more vulnerable to contamination, as it might have been washed with contaminated water. Can we return to the raspberries? They’re a big part of my mornings. You wrote so chillingly about how they’re a tantalizingly ‘sticky’ host for the parasite. Am I done with them for the foreseeable future? Alice: Based on what we know so far, experts doubt that berries are to blame for the current surge in cases. But if you’re worried, you can consider going with locally grown. That won’t eliminate your risk, but likely reduces it a lot. Caroline: I’d add that risk tolerance is a personal choice, and that it may hinge on your health status. Severe diarrhea can lead to dehydration, which could be risky for pregnant women, young children, older adults and anyone who is immunocompromised. One expert told me that she lost her 2-year-old son to a food-borne illness (E. coli, not cyclospora). That experience has left her with a much lower risk tolerance for this type of thing. (She also said, “Quite honestly, I don’t have time in my life for explosive diarrhea.” ) Is cyclospora ever going away, or is it going to be around for as long as we get fruit and vegetables from places that irrigate their crops with questionable water? Alice: When I talked to Frank Yiannas, a former top official at the F.D.A., he compared cyclospora outbreaks to hurricanes: We may not be able to prevent them, but we can reduce their harm by detecting them early, improving agricultural and food safety practices, and making sure that public health officials have the resources they need to respond. In this regard, the United States has room for improvement. Many local and state public health departments, which are on the front lines of responding to outbreaks, are short-staffed and have insufficient funding. Last year, the C.D.C. quietly scaled back one of its key surveillance systems for food-borne illnesses. And the F.D.A. delayed the implementation of a federal “traceability” rule designed to improve record-keeping throughout the food supply chain, which would help investigators solve outbreaks and issue recalls more quickly. That rule had been set to go into effect in January but it has now been delayed until July 2028. For more: Federal officials announced an additional 2,500 cyclosporiasis cases in the United States yesterday, making 2026 the worst year for the infection on record. The cyclospora outbreak highlights how rising temperatures and extreme weather can fuel the spread of food-borne illnesses. THE LATEST NEWS Middle East The U.S. struck a deal with Saudi Arabia that could allow the kingdom to enrich nuclear fuel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the United States would continue attacking Iran as long as it tried to control the Strait of Hormuz. The Pentagon identified a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq on Friday as Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, N.C. His mom said he was “the kind of person who could light up any room.” Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, said the war had cost $37.5 billion so far. On Capitol Hill yesterday, he asked for about $70 billion more. Trump reiterated his threat to bomb Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected nuclear site in Iran. His threats show he is willing to escalate the war there. Trump lifted a ban on direct U.S. flights to Lebanon after a meeting with the Lebanese president. The ban had been in place since Hezbollah’s 1985 hijacking of an American plane. Around the World Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine removed his top general after days of protests. The new general is much younger. Thousands of young people in India protested the country’s education system. The police cracked down, throwing tear gas and leaving some demonstrators bloody. France passed a law to restrict social media access for anyone under 15. A similar ban in Australia has had little success. In Britain, prosecutors revealed more details about the killing of Ann Widdecombe, a right-wing politician. A gloved man walked into her home as she ate lunch, asked for her bank cards and struck her 21 times on the head with a hammer. Japan’s prime minister wrote on social media that she got just “zero to three hours” of sleep a night. People in the country are debating work-life balance. Politics Zohran Mamdani and Benjamin Netanyahu. Anna Connors for The New York Times; Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York called Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal” and “the architect of a horrific genocide” and challenged the federal government to arrest him after determining that New York did not have the authority to do so. The House approved a spending bill to fund the government through early December. It may not pass the Senate. The Trump administration is withholding more than $1 billion in Medicaid funds from California and Minnesota, accusing their public health insurance programs of fraud. The Trump administration’s funding cuts to PEPFAR, a global H.I.V. program, forced at least 1,700 treatment sites to close, a new study found. Voting Republican voters in Arizona chose Trump-backed candidates for governor and in a key House race in yesterday’s primaries. Roughly 400 noncitizens voted in New Jersey after a software error at the D.M.V. caused them to be improperly registered, the state’s governor said. Artificial Intelligence OpenAI said that two of its A.I. models went rogue and hacked into a digital library of A.I. technology that is popular among developers. Have you seen wellness influencers who are losing a ton of weight quickly? They may not be real, The Times found. Watch the video below. The New York Times MONKEY BUSINESS A baboon working on a geometry problem. Scott Hamilton/RIT Imagine a trapezoid. (Been a minute since geometry class? This is a four-sided figure with two parallel sides.) Now flip it, shrink it and rotate it. If a scientist sat you down before a parade of shapes, police-lineup-style, could you match this new shape with the original? Maybe you could. And maybe that makes you feel a little bit special. But it shouldn’t. Pigeon brains do geometry. And, scientists have now discovered, so do monkey brains. The researchers put up preschoolers against four baboons and four rhesus macaques in a shapes showdown. The stakes? Stickers and cereal. Read what happened. OPINIONS Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin have each made a big mistake — surrounding themselves with sycophants, Thomas Friedman writes. By taxing A.I. companies, the government can help Americans benefit from their success, Sebastian Mallaby writes. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. MORNING READS In Venezuela. Pedro Mattey/Associated Press, Edilzon Gamez/Getty Images, Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters; Adriano Machado/Reuters, Fabiola Ferrero for The NYT, Federico Parra/AFP — Getty Images We’ve made these links free for you. Reunited: Many people lost everything in Venezuela’s earthquakes. Despite the odds, volunteers are reuniting some families with their pets. More on Venezuela: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about two brothers searching for their dead family members in Venezuela. Boosie BadAzz, a Southern rapper who pleaded guilty to a gun possession charge, paid $600,000 to try to get a pardon from Trump — but never got one. He wants a refund. Jimothy, a short-spined raccoon in Seattle, has become a national celebrity after videos of him went viral on social media. You’ve gotta see him. TODAY’S NUMBER Scott Olson/Getty Images 13 — That’s how many weeks of unlimited pasta and breadsticks someone can enjoy with Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta Pass. The pass’s photo ID requirement has made it a hot topic on Capitol Hill. SPORTS Cycling: Remco Evenepoel, competing for Red Bull, won stage 16 of the Tour de France. Look at how some of the fastest racers do it. World Cup final: The championship between Spain and Argentina smashed TV records on both Fox and Telemundo. The numbers were outrageous. RECIPE OF THE DAY Bryan Gardner for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Here’s a dead-simple recipe for fiery, Mexicanish braised chicken with peppers. The spicing comes from Tajín, the brand name for the chile-lime salt that’s often sprinkled on fruit, and canned green chiles. Serve with tortillas, rice and loads of queso fresco. THE RETURN OF ‘LES MIS’ A scene from “Les Misérables: The Arena Concert Spectacular.” Danny Kaan Ten years after the Broadway revival of “Les Misérables,” “Les Misérables: The Arena Concert Spectacular” arrives at Radio City Music Hall this week. A few days later, a production of the original is opening at Hudson Valley Shakespeare. There’s a “Les Mis” up at the Phoenix Theater Company in Arizona and another at the Tuacahn Amphitheater in Utah. What explains the show’s appeal? Let’s see, Valjean. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Jiayue Li Read “Yellow Pine,” by Claire Vaye Watkins, a novel our critic says is filled with “gobsmacking beauty juxtaposed with gobsmacking destruction.” Stop doom scrolling. Times readers have tips. Skip the fancy noise-canceling headphones recommended by the audiophiles at Wirecutter and pick up their budget pick instead. I did, and I can’t hear you! GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was infallibly. 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 Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

⚽ World Cup ratings record Data: Nielsen. Chart: Kerry Flynn/Axios Sunday's World Cup final drew more than 62.8 million viewers in the U.S., making it the most-watched World Cup final and soccer telecast in American history, Axios' Kerry Flynn and Sara Fischer write. Nearly 39 million U.S. viewers watched the game on Fox, which had exclusive English-language broadcast rights in the U.S. Those figures are up 132% from the 2022 final, the company said. Nearly 24 million U.S. viewers tuned into the broadcast on Telemundo, which had exclusive Spanish-language broadcast rights in the U.S. Those figures are up 166% from the 2022 final on Telemundo. Keep reading.

🌵 Trump allies win big in Arizona President Trump's candidates cruised in two of Arizona's marquee primaries yesterday: Rep. Andy Biggs, a former House Freedom Caucus chair and fierce Trump ally, won the GOP's nomination for governor by 58 points (73% to 15%) over the more scandal-prone Rep. David Schweikert and will face Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Former NFL kicker Jay Feely, also backed by Trump, beat back a more right-wing challenger for the competitive 1st Congressional District. Physician and former state Rep. Amish Shah leads the Democratic primary so far. State Senate President Warren Petersen will now face one of the more vigorous Democratic attorneys general who has been challenging the Trump administration in court: Kris Mayes, who won her 2022 race by just 280 votes.

💰 Trump's new tariff playbook Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios The Trump administration could soon fire its next tariff salvo — possibly this week — with new duties expected to emerge from investigations covering roughly 60 trading partners under an expanding mix of legal authorities, Axios' Courtenay Brown writes. Why it matters: Just days before a temporary tariff authority is set to expire, the White House is still finding ways to pursue President Trump's tariff agenda despite its legal setbacks. The next escalation would arrive as renewed conflict in the Middle East pushes energy prices higher — an awkward backdrop for a White House seeking to ratchet up tariffs without reigniting inflation. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC to "expect to see some action soon" from an investigation into whether countries are doing enough to block goods made with forced labor. The Financial Times reported that the administration is weighing tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on imports from a slew of nations as soon as this week — a major expansion of Trump's tariff agenda. 🎨 The big picture: After the Supreme Court struck down the president's emergency tariffs earlier this year, the administration replaced many of them with a 10% global levy under Section 122 of the Trade Act — a temporary authority that expires Friday.

🏛️ Charted: Trump's exit rate Data: Partnership for Public Service. (Includes departures of Cabinet department officials nominated during the same administration. Excludes U.S. attorneys, U.S. marshals and ambassadors.) Chart: Noah Bressner/Axios Senior Trump administration officials are leaving office in record numbers 18 months after Inauguration Day — outpacing even the churn from President Trump's first term, according to data from the Partnership for Public Service. 27 Senate-confirmed officials within the Cabinet departments have left their positions, nearly 2 1/2 times the number from Trump 1.0. With departures piling up, Trump has been slow to nominate replacements. He has made fewer Senate-confirmed nominations than any president since Reagan, shifting more posts to acting officials who skip Senate confirmation. More data.

⚖️ Trump doesn't plan to block Tate extradition President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio aren't planning to block the extradition to the U.K. of the Tate brothers, the notorious "manosphere" influencers accused of rape and human trafficking, Axios' Marc Caputo writes. Why it matters: Andrew and Tristan Tate were part of the coalition of hyper-masculine social media voices advocating for Trump when he was reelected in 2024. The brothers have reported connections to two of Trump's sons and have had support from top Trump advisers. Officially and publicly, Trump and his administration have kept the Tates at arm's length because of their sordid reputations. "The U.S. has an extradition treaty with the U.K. and the administration intends to honor it in this case," a senior administration official told Axios. U.S. marshals arrested the Tates in Miami on Saturday after British authorities issued 38 new sex-crime charges against the brothers, bringing the total combined counts against them to 59. 🔎 Behind the scenes: Those who know Rubio's thinking say the secretary, a conservative Catholic who fought as a U.S. senator for stronger human trafficking laws and protections for victims, isn't inclined to help the Tates. "Marco thinks these guys are scum," said one source. "Now if the president overrules him, which I don't think is likely, he's got a problem." A source familiar with Trump's thinking said the president wants nothing to do with the brothers. "The Tates want to pretend they were responsible for the president's victory [in 2024], but they weren't part of our strategy and the president doesn't know them," a former Trump campaign adviser said.

💪 AI giants flex in Washington 👀 What we're watching: Axios has learned that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will meet with lawmakers and the White House next week to discuss the company's upcoming model, GPT-6, which unleashes huge batches of AI agents to work together persistently and relentlessly on complex tasks. This will test President Trump's willingness to slow advanced models with Chinese competition rising. Go deeper. Anthropic plans to spend at least $40 million on midterms, committing another $20 million this morning to Public First Action, which supports candidates across the spectrum who support AI safeguards, Axios' Maria Curi reports. Go deeper: OpenAI and Anthropic unite against open models.

Exclusive: Jensen defends Chinese AI Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang believes America has nothing to fear from China's open-source AI models — and everything to fear from the growing campaign to ban them. "These Chinese models are excellent," Huang told me yesterday in an exclusive interview for our "Behind the Curtain" video series. "Open-source models that are excellent should be used." Why it matters: The world's top AI chipmaker says American companies should "absolutely" be allowed to use Chinese models — a direct challenge to Trump officials and the U.S. labs lobbying Washington to shut them out. Among them are Nvidia's own customers, OpenAI and Anthropic, which have accused Chinese rivals of siphoning capabilities from their models and warned that Beijing's open-source surge threatens America's AI lead. Huang rejected the idea that OpenAI and Anthropic should fear open models, arguing they expand the market by giving more people a first taste of AI, while many users will still pay for the convenience, reliability and stronger performance of closed services. "There's no scenario where China runs U.S. companies off the road," he told us. "Zero possibility." Huang sat down with me in Fort Worth, Texas, at the opening of a new phase of an advanced manufacturing plant where Taiwan-based Wistron makes AI infrastructure for Nvidia, showing the U.S. is capable of some of the world's most sophisticated manufacturing. 🖼️ The big picture: The release of Kimi K3 by Beijing-based Moonshot AI has triggered the most intense bout of AI panic since DeepSeek rattled financial markets in January 2025. Kimi combines three qualities rarely seen together: near-frontier performance, dramatically lower prices and open weights that developers will soon be able to download and customize. That combination helped fuel a sell-off of Nvidia and other chip stocks, reviving fears that cheaper, more efficient models could undercut the case for the industry's massive AI infrastructure buildout. Zoom in: Huang says Wall Street and Washington have the Kimi shock exactly backward. "The market misunderstood the impact of DeepSeek the first time," he told Axios, adding that Wall Street has "misunderstood the impact of Kimi again this time." His argument is simple: Cheaper, open models will bring AI to more people and businesses, increasing demand for the chips, data centers and computing power Nvidia sells. "Free AI should be great for hardware," Huang said. "Free AI should be great for chips. Free AI should be great for data centers." 🔭 Zoom out: When it comes to policy, Huang believes restricting open models in the name of national security could leave America more vulnerable. He rejected the "misconception" that downloaded Chinese models create a "backdoor" to Beijing, arguing that companies can customize them and control their access inside secure "sandboxes." Huang suggested openness makes AI more secure, not less, because outside researchers can inspect the models, expose weaknesses and build defenses. "If everything just becomes one single model, one single point of attack, one single source of failure, I think the world is much, much more vulnerable," he said. Huang applied the same logic to American models, and called on Anthropic to make its restricted cyber model, Claude Mythos, available to "everyone" rather than limiting access. Huang argued that companies should harden powerful models through testing and rapid fixes rather than restricting access from the outset. "Mythos should be available as a service," he said. "Remember: Just because Mythos is not available, open models are available anyhow. So I think: Let Anthropic run." "Holding Anthropic back is not in the benefit of the United States," he said. 🔬 Between the lines: Huang sees the AI race itself very differently from Washington, where some Trump advisers have cast China's gains as a five-alarm threat to U.S. dominance. He dismissed the notion that it's "a race with an endpoint": "We're going to continue to use AI forever. The United States is going to be here for a long time. China's going to be here for a long time." 🍿 Watch the first clip.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY July 22 2003 Jessica Lynch gets hero’s welcome U.S. Army Private Jessica Lynch, a prisoner-of-war who was rescued from an Iraqi hospital, receives a hero’s welcome when she returns to her hometown of Palestine, West Virginia. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 21st Century 2003 Qusay and Uday Hussein killed Arts & Entertainment 2005 “March of the Penguins” released widely in the U.S. Civil War 1864 Battle of Atlanta Cold War 1987 Gorbachev accepts ban on intermediate-range nuclear missiles Crime 1991 Cannibal and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is caught 1934 John Dillinger gunned down European History 2013 Prince George, first child of Prince William and Kate Middleton, is born Exploration 1933 Wiley Post flies solo around the world Inventions & Science 1894 First-ever automobile race runs from Paris to Rouen U.S. Presidents 1862 Lincoln tells his cabinet about Emancipation Proclamation World War I 1916 Preparedness Day bombing in San Francisco World War II 1942 Deportations from Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka begin

How many drug overdose deaths happen every year in the United States? There were 79,384 overdose deaths in 2024. That means that for every 100,000 people living in the US, 23 died of a drug overdose. This is the fifth highest the drug overdose death rate has been since data from 1999 became available. https://usafacts.org/answers/how-many-drug-overdose-deaths-happen-every-year-in-the-us/country/united-states/? What is the federal government's budget deficit? The federal government’s fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget deficit is about $1.37 trillion as of June. A budget deficit occurs when the federal government spends more money than it brings in through taxes, customs duties, the sale of assets, and other revenues. When the government has a deficit, it borrows money by selling bonds and other securities in order to pay for it, adding to the national debt. A budget surplus, on the other hand, occurs when the government brings in more money than it spends. https://usafacts.org/answers/what-is-the-federal-governments-budget-deficit-or-surplus/country/united-states/? One last fact The nation’s neighbors are also its biggest trading partners. In 2025, imports and exports with Mexico totaled $971 billion. These primarily included capital goods, such as machinery, equipment, and other production process tools. Imports and exports with Canada, primarily industrial supplies and materials such as oil, chemicals, and plastics used in production processes, totaled $879.9 billion. While the nation’s trade deficit with Canada shrank last year (down $12.1 billion from the year prior), it grew with Mexico (up $22.3 billion).

🛶 Pic to go! Photo: Rich Gaffin A panoramic view of Diablo Lake in the mountains of North Cascades National Park in Washington state, captured by reader Rich Gaffin of Burke, Va. Rich writes: "The great parks all have their unique grandeur and beauty. That said, I've been to 50 parks so far, and there are a few lesser known ones that really stunned me. Among these is North Cascades."

A tech innovator and an old guard general are the focus of Ukraine's political crisis One is a tech-savvy drone innovator with no military experience who became Ukraine’s youngest defense minister six months ago and was credited with contributing to successes in defending against Russia's 4-year-old invasion. Read More.

Turkish deposed opposition leader plans to create a new party to take on Erdogan The deposed leader of Turkey’s main opposition announced plans on Tuesday to create a new political party to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Read More. The Bosphorus: A waterway of work and life in Istanbul, in photos As the sun sets over Istanbul, commuters hurry aboard ferries crossing the Bosphorus while many others are just beginning their workday along the busy waterway that divides Europe and Asia. Read More.

Senate panel advances Jay Clayton's nomination to lead US intelligence agencies The Senate Intelligence Committee has advanced the nomination of Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, along party lines. Read More.

⚽️ 1 sports thing: Longest "goooooooool" calls Data: Telemundo. Chart: The Athletic. Used with kind permission Spain's decisive extra-time goal against Argentina on Sunday spurred one of Telemundo's longest "gooooooooool" calls of the World Cup, The Athletic reports. It lasted 44 seconds, counting all three bursts. 🇨🇼 The longest overall: 52 seconds, after Curaçao — the smallest nation ever to qualify for the World Cup — scored a tying goal against Germany early in the tournament. Telemundo announcer Andrés Cantor tells The Athletic: "It was Curaçao's first-ever World Cup goal, and I immediately understood what that meant." Hear the calls (Athletic gift link).

⛔️ The Trump administration is halting more than $1 billion in federal Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota until they take more steps to investigate questionable claims, federal officials said today. Go deeper. 🏅 The White House Correspondents' Association is giving awards to Secret Service Police Officer Victor Gonzales and the staff of the Washington Hilton for "exceptional service" after a gunman tried to storm its annual dinner in April. Go deeper. Appeals court reverses decision that freed pro-Palestinian Columbia activist Mohsen Mahdawi A federal appeals panel has reversed a lower court decision ordering the release of pro-Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi, opening the door to the re-arrest of a student protest organizer whom the Trump administration has spent more than a year trying to deport. Read More. Appeals court upholds White House adviser Peter Navarro's contempt of Congress convictions A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld White House adviser Peter Navarro's convictions for defying a subpoena for records from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump's supporters. Read More.

⚡️ Catch me up Graphic: National Hurricane Center 🌊 Tropical storm warnings and watches are in effect from parts of Florida to Louisiana as Tropical Storm Bertha skirts the Gulf Coast this week. More from Axios' Carlie Kollath Wells.

🍏 Apple eyes new upgrade program Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios Apple is planning to launch a new leasing program for iPhones and other gadgets, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. 📱 Apple Upgrade will offer 24- to 36-month leases, potentially with lower payments than current options. Users can choose to pay off their devices early, or return them at the end of the term. Apple is working with buy-now, pay-later platform Klarna on the service, which comes after price hikes on many Apple products amid tariffs and the AI-fueled computer-memory crisis. Gift link.

Trump says US-Lebanon flights can resume, pledges help for that country after meeting its president WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pledged to help Lebanon “a lot” during a White House meeting on Tuesday with the country’s leader, Joseph Aoun, who came to push for long-term calm after months of war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. https://apnews.com/article/lebanon-president-hezbollah-trump-aoun-israel-e0364d0334c2f4d888d2b3970c9fe5b1? MAGA chiefs gather to plot midterms Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios President Trump's top political advisers are meeting this afternoon to review polling, messaging and strategy ahead of the midterms, Axios' Marc Caputo reports. The meeting is the second in what is becoming a series of regular conclaves to coordinate the GOP, its candidates and Trump's political operation. Trump won't be there. But several top MAGA shot-callers will be present, including... Tony Fabrizio, Trump's longtime top pollster. James Blair, Trump's hands-on political operations chief in charge of executing a midterm plan. Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff and Trump's longest-serving political adviser. Cabinet officials (except Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who's in Manila on official business). 💰 The big picture: Trump's super PAC and the Republican National Committee are sitting on about $530 million, and now his team is figuring out how, when and where to deploy it. That doesn't include what insiders say is hundreds of millions of dollars more in Trump's dark-money political nonprofit, Securing American Greatness. 📉 Republicans acknowledge that it'll be tough to keep the House as Trump's poll numbers bottom out amid rising gas prices and the war in Iran. But Trump operatives argue that voters are wary of Democrats' progressive overreach — and they think this election will be about who Americans hate more, not who they love. 🪂 Yes, but: Trump is fighting political gravity. Polls show that voters believe the economy is in lousy shape — and that they're blaming Trump. A Trump operative involved in today's meeting tells Axios: "The Trump tax cuts have saved people real money, and the president is keeping Americans safe. ... We have the manpower, the message and the money to make that clear." Go deeper.

French lawmakers approve a sweeping social media ban for children under 15 PARIS (AP) — France banned children under 15 from using social media on Tuesday, becoming the first country in the European Union to pass a blanket ban on the platforms as concerns grow worldwide over the harmful effects of digital content on kids. https://apnews.com/article/france-social-media-ban-macron-94abd981ccea85138af314cfb1ea62cf?

Judge Gives Blunt Warning to Trump Goons in Reflecting Pool ‘Vandal’ Case The president is caught between fixing the mess he’s made and punishing the people he blamed instead. A D.C. judge has lambasted Donald Trump’s Justice Department goons over their efforts to blame someone else for the mess his administration has made of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Judge Todd E. Edelman, an Obama appointee, warned U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, 75, on Monday that the Trump administration is “operating at its own peril” in the way it has handled its case against David Hearn, 67, a former Olympic canoeist. Trump, 80, and Pirro have accused Hearn of vandalizing the D.C. landmark after the president’s botched $16 million attempt to turn its waters “American flag blue” succeeded only in transforming the pool into a slimy green monstrosity. The renovation deal went in part to a Trump ally with a criminal history and no prior record of federal contracting work. “The Reflecting Pool, so badly damaged by Deranged Vandals, has been emptied as the massive slash gets repaired,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday. “The Scum in Court will hopefully be prosecuted to the MAX,” he added—presumably referring to Hearn rather than the algal film that has covered the pool in recent weeks. Hearn’s attorneys filed a motion on Thursday to have the case against him thrown out, arguing that Pirro had failed to preserve the government’s key evidence against him. The DOJ accused Hearn of “forcefully and violently” ripping up parts of the pool lining, which they claim led to the runaway algal bloom. “Despite the importance of the pool liner to the case, in the brief period since June 19, 2026, the same government that presented and returned the indictment against Mr. Hearn has fenced off the scene, begun draining the pool yet again, and publicly announced its intention to repair the very liner whose condition is at issue,” they wrote. Hearn, who competed for the United States in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Olympics, has pleaded not guilty to a single count of destruction of property. He told NBC News that he was arrested and detained for five hours after touching a piece of the lining of the pool that had detached “to satisfy my curiosity as a citizen of what was happening with all the algae and the peeling blue coating.” “The condition of the Reflecting Pool was the same after I stepped away from the water as it was before I got there,” he told the network. The Washington Post reports that Judge Edelman denied Hearn’s attorneys’ motion to have the case dismissed outright but asked prosecutors to account for the current status of work at the site. They could not, telling the court that they were unsure whether the evidence against Hearn had been preserved. Edelman, who set a trial date for September 28, also asked why the Trump administration could not “maintain the status quo” for the rest of the week to avoid access to evidence becoming an “issue at this trial,” according to News From the States. The judge also urged the “government to not do anything further” on the pool before denying Hearn’s motion to dismiss the case, the outlet reports. Edelman called the motion “entirely premature” but did not prohibit Hearn’s attorneys from filing another motion to dismiss going forward. Edelman conceded that the prosecutors, “personally, are not in control” of renovations at the Reflecting Pool. He added that “there may well not be any prejudice,” meaning the case could still go ahead, even as he warned that the government was endangering its chances of a successful prosecution. The Daily Beast has contacted the Justice Department for comment on this story. https://www.thedailybeast.com/judge-gives-blunt-warning-to-trump-doj-goon-jeanine-pirro-in-reflecting-pool-vandal-case/?

🏗️ The Center for Climate Integrity released a new report this month detailing how the oil and gas industry colluded to promote the lie of natural gas as a clean alternative to oil, “despite knowing that it is a significant source of air pollution and a major contributor to climate change.”