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👋 Buh-bye, artificial food dye HHS Secretary RFK Jr. at a press conference last month with ice cream makers pledging to eliminate artificial food dyes. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Artificial food dyes are being increasingly stripped out of supermarket staples, driven by the MAHA movement's push against additives, USA Today reports. The new colorants "come from plants, algae or insects, making their supply more variable and geographically concentrated than synthetic dyes." And the change "can involve agricultural production, global sourcing, manufacturing capacity, packaging, storage, shipping and shelf-life testing." 🥣 Remember this: A product can be free of synthetic dyes but still high in sugar, salt or calories. Keep reading.

📺 Fox straight talk Image: Fox News Mediaite founding editor Colby Hall writes on Substack that Fox News is conservative, yes, but more politically independent in the second Trump era than its critics would have you believe. A prime example: "Fox & Friends" co-host Lawrence Jones said democratic socialists are finding electoral success by reaching "people that are desperate right now." Hall's take: "It makes the network more useful than the caricature of it suggests, because the people inside it are increasingly willing to describe the world as it is even when that description doesn't flatter the people they would prefer to see win." The full post.

✡️ Synagogues turn members into guards Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Synagogues across the U.S. are having congregants train to be volunteer security teams as antisemitic assaults hit record levels and Jewish gathering places face increasing threats, Axios' Russell Contreras reports. Why it matters: The front doorways of many synagogues are becoming both a place of welcome and a security checkpoint — a sign of how antisemitism is reshaping Jewish life in America. Antisemitic attacks in the U.S. hit a 46-year high last year — the most since the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) began tracking such incidents in 1979. How it works: Jewish security groups are layering cameras, hardened doors, tighter access rules, trained volunteers and coordination with law enforcement around synagogues. 7,100+ volunteers have been trained by the Community Security Service (CSS), which now protects more than 500 synagogues and events across the U.S. each week, the nonprofit's CEO, Richard Priem, tells Axios. Yes, but: Hardening these spaces takes a psychological toll. Rabbi Nolan Lebovitz, senior rabbi at Valley Beth Shalom in L.A. — one of the largest synagogues in North America — tells Axios that clergy are fighting to balance safety with spiritual optimism. "Jews, Jewish parents especially, want to feel safe," said Lebovitz, the grandson of four Holocaust survivors.

✏️ Midterm cheat sheet Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Axios CEO Jim VandeHei asked for midterm previews by two top handicappers: Josh Kraushaar, editor-in-chief of Jewish Insider and former Axios campaign expert, and David Wasserman of The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. Senate Where it stands: 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats, 2 independents caucusing with Dems (making 47 total). Democrats need: 4 flips to get to 51. Fifty isn't enough — the tiebreak is Republican. The call: Kraushaar: Dem +2. Wasserman: Dem +3. Why it matters: This mirrors what we're hearing from top Ds and Rs alike. Democrats will get close, but likely fall short of a majority. The big reason: They need to flip too many seats in too many GOP-friendly states like Alaska, Maine, Ohio and Texas. House Where it stands: 218 Republicans, 212 Democrats, 1 independent, 4 vacancies. Democrats need: net gain of 3 (against November's 435 seats, with the vacancies washed out) to reach 218, the majority. The call: Kraushaar: Dem +15-20. Wasserman: Dem +15. Why it matters: Republicans enjoy (and muscled through) a favorable map with way more Ds running in Trump-won districts than Rs in Harris-won districts. They then jammed through late redistricting changes that should hand them six to nine seats. Yet most top Republicans tell us there's an 80%+ chance they're toast, regardless.

⚖️ AI's scarlet letter Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images The slightest hint of generative AI usage is fast becoming a kiss of death in creative circles, Axios' Shane Savitsky writes. Why it matters: It's turning into a purity test that has the potential to blow up careers and derail massive deals — and there's no desire for nuance or ability to clear your name. Driving the news: Creator Hank Green, who has over 3 million YouTube subscribers, used the phrase "I appreciate the pushback" in a recent video. That caused some viewers to suspect that his script was AI-generated, given the phrase's resemblance to LLM response patterns. Green said the phrase was a non-scripted ad-lib. But he apologized in an emotional Reddit post for using AI as a research aid "to locate papers and other resources for learning about topics." He added his LLM use was "not healthy for me or good for the world" and said he'd take a step back from making videos.

Trump’s slapdash Reflecting Pool renovations stand in stark contrast to ingenuity of its creation In the latest twist in one of the strangest ongoing scandals in Washington, D.C., U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced that the government would be dropping charges against the four people accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the 2,000-foot long water basin that connects the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument. Pirro said faulty construction — not vandalism, as President Donald Trump had claimed — caused the pool’s liner to peel off in June 2026. https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/trumps-slapdash-reflecting-pool-renovations-stand-stark-contrast-ingenuity-its-creation?

My disabled son has civil rights, just like all of us My disabled son Rob and I are often in Annapolis to advocate for health care and disability rights. If the weather’s nice, we sit on Lawyer’s Mall in front of the State House and reflect on the legacy of Thurgood Marshall, whose statue stands there. Maryland has a proud history of protecting the civil rights of marginalized people — except our state struggles to protect those same rights for disabled people. https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/my-disabled-son-has-civil-rights-just-all-us?

As an American Jew, my first political loyalty is to American democracy I’m an American Jew, and my political loyalty is not to Democrats or to Republicans. https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/american-jew-my-first-political-loyalty-american-democracy?

Trump, 80, Sets Sights on New Government Office He Plans to Loot The president would love to get his hands on the State Department’s chandeliers, Corinthian columns, and a painting or two. President Donald Trump appears to have decided that the federal government’s most prized possessions are his for the taking. Speaking to roughly 200 mining executives at the State Department on Friday, Trump said being president means he can remove things from government buildings—and even “grab a painting” for the Oval Office should the mood strike him. “It’s a beautiful building,” Trump remarked as he looked around from his seat at the State Department desk. “I’m liking the chandeliers. I like those Corinthian columns, but cutting them out would be not good.” He emphasized: “I’m allowed to do it,” as he appeared to claim broad authority to take government property. “Every once in a while I’ll come in here and grab a painting and put it into the Oval Office,” he said. Trump also ran his fingers over a small, solid-gold replica of a deep-sea nodule sitting on the desk, a gift presented Friday by the CEO of American Ocean Minerals ahead of the mining-industry roundtable. After the roundtable, the White House announced more than $2 billion in funding to revitalize the industry, along with more than $180 million for mining-school investments aimed at boosting the workforce. Trump came under heavy fire in his first administration for failing to account for some 100 gifts valued at $250,000 given by foreign leaders to the presidential office. Expensive foreign gifts belong to the U.S. government, not the individual president, who is allowed to keep only lower-value items. Trump also has a history of treating government records as personal property. He took home several boxes of classified documents, mixing reports with personal effects, including his wife’s clothing. He stored stacked boxes of secret documents on a stage and close to a toilet at Mar-a-Lago.Posters on X went wild over the Fox News video about Trump eyeing State Department treasures he’d like to grab, with one user posting a photo of boxes of classified files in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago bathroom.“I love stealing things,” said a mocking clip featuring character Creed from The Office. Many observers couldn’t help but notice that Trump used the word “grab” when he said he could take whatever he wanted. The word echoed one of his most infamous uses of it: the hot-mic capture of Trump boasting on Access Hollywood before he was elected president the first time that he could kiss any woman he wanted without asking, and “grab [women] by the p---y.” He later dismissed it as “locker room banter.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-sets-sights-on-new-government-office-he-plans-to-loot/?

August 8, 2026 Good morning. My colleagues at the Book Review published their list of the 50 best thrillers of the 21st century this past week. I’ve asked Tina Jordan, the editor of the Book Review, to tell us about it. I’ll be back next Saturday. — Melissa Naila Ruechel Edge of your seat By Tina Jordan I’m more or less addicted to thrillers. And I’ve always been this way. I was one of those kids who lived for Encyclopedia Brown books (and firmly believed it was cheating to skip ahead to the last page for the solution). I plowed through all the yellow-spined Nancy Drews I could find. Then, when I was in sixth grade, my teacher began reading Agatha Christie’s “Cat Among the Pigeons” to the class every day after lunch. Was it appropriate for a bunch of 12-year-olds, given the number of people in the novel who are coshed, bludgeoned and shot? Possibly not! But I was hooked: I asked my mother to drive me to the Emily Fowler Public Library and promptly checked out as many Christies as I could carry. From there I moved on to Sherlock Holmes, “The Turn of the Screw” and Margaret Millar’s novels. Now, as a grown-up who works at The New York Times Book Review, I’m immersed in exciting projects all the time. But none was as much fun for me as the list we published this week of the 50 best thrillers of the 21st century. They’re still the books I turn to when I want to relax and escape. Sometimes I want to play a mental chess game by picking up a good mystery or police procedural, trying to match wits with a detective. One of my all-time favorites made our list: Tana French’s “Broken Harbor” (No. 20), which is not just the story of a murder investigation, but also a devastating day-by-day portrait of a man’s descent into mental illness after Ireland’s 2008 financial crisis. (If someone tells me they “don’t read thrillers,” I hand them a French novel.) When I’m not in the mood for anything so cerebral, I like to lose myself in the twists and turns of a fast-moving crime novel — the kind that I can finish in one gulp, like S.A. Cosby’s “Razorblade Tears” (No. 😎 or Oyinkan Braithwaite’s bracing “My Sister, the Serial Killer” (No. 6), which might be the only comic serial-killer thriller I’ve ever read. I’m also a sucker for deeply unnerving “bad seed” thrillers — you know, the ones where the kids were born evil. There are three of them here, all excellent: Lionel Shriver’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin” (No. 14), Ashley Audrain’s “The Push” (No. 47), and my single favorite book on the list, “Defending Jacob” (No. 30), William Landay’s nerve-racking tale of murder told, in part, through courtroom testimony. The main character, Andy, is certain that his son didn’t stab a classmate to death; his wife, remembering the way other children always seemed to get badly hurt around Jacob, isn’t so sure. Naila Ruechel for The New York Times We put the 50 thrillers list together by polling hundreds of writers, booksellers, editors, Bookstagrammers and librarians. When we sent them their ballots, we said, Hey! Let us know if we can publish yours. A surprising number said yes. Those ballots, it turns out, are a rich source of recommendations. I love Jane Harper’s atmospheric thrillers, where the settings — desolate, parched stretches of rural Australia — are as important as the characters. When I saw a book on her ballot that I hadn’t heard of, Val McDermid’s “A Place of Execution,” I snapped it up. It might be the creepiest police procedural I’ve ever read, set in a remote English village “so cut off from the rest of the world, they might still be worshiping the corn goddess,” as the detective says. Now I’ve ordered William Boyle’s “Saint of the Narrows Street,” since Jordan Harper, whose ice-cold noir novels I particularly enjoy, had it on his ballot. If I pace myself, I can mine these ballots for months. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Kenny Holston/The New York Times A bitterly divided Senate narrowly confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general, after a bruising battle that centered on concerns about his ability and willingness to rein in President Trump. The Senate passed a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown, in a bipartisan effort to head off a major spending skirmish before the midterms. President Trump cannot keep building his East Wing ballroom without explicit approval from Congress, an appeals court panel ruled. Trump plans to take the case to the Supreme Court. The White House sent Lisa Cook a letter saying it was “considering” removing the Federal Reserve governor from her job. The Supreme Court rebuffed Trump’s first attempt to fire her. A former federal prosecutor in Miami, fired after an influencer surfaced his old blog posts criticizing Trump, is suing the Justice Department to get his job back. Business The U.S. economy unexpectedly lost 23,000 jobs in July, and hiring in previous months was revised down sharply. The weak jobs report has reduced some of the Federal Reserve’s urgency around raising interest rates. But it has not eliminated the possibility. Around the World The New York Times In the video above, Julian E. Barnes, who covers U.S. intelligence agencies, explains how the Trump administration has been looking for a current or former Cuban official to take over the island’s government. Click to play. More than 20 activists who tried to sail to Gaza said Israeli security forces beat, shocked and abused them after they were captured. Israel denied the accusations. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact. Iran’s nuclear program has been slowed by the war, but not destroyed. Experts believe Tehran has enough weapons-grade fuel to quickly develop as many as 10 nuclear bombs. Other Big Stories With more than half of the island under drought conditions, Puerto Rico has begun rationing water. This weekend’s U.S. forecast: Extreme heat in the Southwest, wildfire smoke in the Northwest and sauna-like conditions in the Northeast. THE WEEK IN CULTURE “Ted Lasso” Apple TV The beloved series returned for its fourth season this week. Read a recap of the premiere (but beware of spoilers). One place to experience the show’s warm, fuzzy vibes? The picturesque London suburb of Richmond-upon-Thames, where influencers and tourists flock to take pictures with a particular park bench. The show has also driven interest in women’s soccer, the fastest-growing sector of the world’s most popular sport. More on TV Canadian Tire A Canadian hardware store chain reported a surge in sales of its reusable shopping bags after the “Heated Rivalry” star Hudson Williams was spotted carrying one in Toronto. “The Shards” and “Sterling Point,” two new teen dramas, offer fresh perspectives on class and status, our critic James Poniewozik writes. For the younger set, a PBS Kids special follows four kids from different backgrounds on their first day of kindergarten. Film Spider-Man defied the superhero slump. “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” raked in nearly $1 billion in its opening weekend. It’s also one of the five new movies our critics are talking about this week. The box office has Tomdaya to thank for a strong summer. Music Ahead of the release of a documentary about his life, Travis Barker spoke to “Popcast” about surviving a plane crash, his famous family and how drumming has anchored him through it all. John Carpenter, known for his slasher films, lost interest in directing, but not in horror. His new project, “Cathedral,” is both a graphic novel and a hard-rock album. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. RECIPE OF THE WEEK Con Poulos for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. By Melissa Clark Lemon and Thyme Grilled Chicken Breasts My favorite way to grill chicken breasts is to pound them into cutlets and cook them quickly, so the edges char but the interior stays juicy. And marinating them first with plenty of garlic and other aromatics adds enough flavor to forgo a sauce. I do both these things in my recipe for lemon and thyme grilled chicken breasts, which also work beautifully cooked under the broiler. Either way, serve the cutlets on a bed of sliced tomatoes, cucumbers or arugula to soak up all the garlicky drippings. REAL ESTATE Charity Rachelle for The New York Times The Hunt: When their son and daughter-in-law left Washington, D.C., for Huntsville, Ala., a couple followed suit, hoping for a family gathering spot. What did they find? Play our game. What you get for $1 million in Italy: A compound with a pool in Ostuni, a partially renovated 16th-century farmhouse near Francavilla Fontana, and a crenelated mini fortress in Presicce-Acquarica. Pick your favorite: A cottage in Lake Arrowhead, Calif.; a Colonial Revival in Stonington, Conn.; and a two-story house in New Orleans are all on the market for $845,000. Which would you choose? Skinny house: A careful renovation helped a couple in Vancouver make the most of their very narrow property. LIVING The New York Times We’ve made these links free for you. Shop like the cool kids: Even if you don’t live in New York, our list of the best clothing stores in the city is a window into the front lines of fashion. Style everywhere: Readers wrote in to nominate the best clothing stores not in New York. Here are 25 across the country. Time for s’mores: Transform your outdoor space with fire pits, lanterns and torches to make the most of summer evenings. Mix and match: Selecting the right tones to go with hardwood floors can be challenging. These tips can help. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Michael Murtaugh/NYT Wirecutter A surprising back-to-school shopping hack If you find yourself on an IKEA trip this month (in search of some college dorm essentials, perhaps?), don’t skip the freezer aisle. Despite its reputation as a destination for affordable furniture, IKEA can also be a great place to stock up on packaged foods. We taste-tested our way through an assortment of the store’s offerings and found 18 delicious and easy-to-prepare items worth having on hand, including instant mashed potatoes that don’t taste frozen at all. One more idea to make mealtime easier amid the chaos of back-to-school season: We swear by these excellent kitchen tools that make cooking less annoying. — Lesley Stockton NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was expending. Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Crossplay, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Deputy Editorial Director: Lauren Jackson

THIS DAY IN HISTORY August 8 1974 Nixon announces he will resign In an evening televised address on August 8, 1974, President Richard M. Nixon announces his intention to resign in light of the Watergate scandal. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 19th Century 1879 Emiliano Zapata born 21st Century 2008 5-day long Russo-Georgian War begins Arts & Entertainment 1986 Spike Lee’s first feature, “She’s Gotta Have It,” premieres 1988 Gangsta rap hits the mainstream with the release of N.W.A’s “Straight Outta Compton” Civil War 1863 Robert E. Lee offers resignation as commander of the Confederate army Exploration 1588 Spanish Armada defeated Religion 1844 Brigham Young chosen to lead Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Sports 1988 Lights go on at Wrigley U.S. Government and Politics 1945 President Truman ratifies United Nations Charter 2009 Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in as an associate justice of the Supreme Court World War I 1918 Battle of Amiens begins World War II 1942 German saboteurs executed in Washington, D.C. 1945 Soviets declare war on Japan, invade Manchuria the next day

Todd Blanche is narrowly confirmed as Trump’s attorney general in an overnight Senate vote WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as attorney general in a vote early Saturday, cementing the command of President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer at a Department of Justice that Trump has sought to bend to his will. https://apnews.com/article/senate-blanche-attorney-general-justice-department-fcb4157d45d7b13a05de4d2b0f4f92e2?

The Stress Switch Experiencing severe stress during childhood can cause lasting damage to brain cells, making individuals more sensitive to stress later in life. The discovery, published yesterday, may reveal a new biological target for mental health treatments. The study focused on the chemical messenger dopamine, which helps process rewards and adversity (watch 101). Researchers found that mice raised in stressful conditions had higher levels of the enzyme SETD7 than mice raised under typical conditions. SETD7 can make dopamine-producing brain cells more responsive to environmental stimuli, leading to a lower stress tolerance. The mice with elevated SETD7 levels displayed more anxious behaviors throughout their lives. However, when researchers blocked the enzyme, these mice became less sensitive to stress. Prior studies found that people who experience four or more adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, such as physical neglect or household substance abuse, are at significantly higher risk for mental health disorders. Get your ACE score here.

This week, a Guardian analysis found that at the height of the Iran war, big oil companies amassed $93bn in profits in three months. With even Donald Trump accusing the sector of “making too much money”, Jillian Ambrose and Damian Carrington laid bare the huge haul eight firms made, prompting fresh calls to increase taxes on those “cashing in on human misery”. ps:Exactly!!!!!

Spanish mountain village braces for astrotourists lured by total solar eclipse Somosierra will be prime spot to view celestial alignment on 12 August, an event that poses logistical challenges https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/08/spanish-mountain-village-braces-for-astrotourists-lured-by-total-solar-eclipse?

Rising number of UK children report seeing explicit deepfakes of themselves Exclusive: anonymous flagging service says cases have surged, as watchdog says AI is making sexualised or ‘nudified’ content easier to produce https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/aug/08/uk-children-explicit-deepfake-images-ai?

Travelling through Iran reveals mixed narratives about the US-Israel war Some believe conflict strengthened national unity, others say it deepened repression, but all mourn the dead https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/08/iran-journey-israel-us-war?

Greenland issues ‘strong warning’ as Trump-linked oil firm prepares to drill Island’s government says no approval given after Greenland Energy brings kit ashore for exploratory drilling https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/08/greenland-iwarning-trump-linked-oil-firm-prepares-drill?

Though most think it’s Italian, pepperoni is an American invention. The first use of the word dates back to 1919. James

Baby Steps (Jim Watson / AFP / Getty)   View in browser If at first you don’t succeed, appeal to a higher federal court. And if you even lose at the Supreme Court … just try again anyway. This seems to be President Trump’s approach to limiting birthright citizenship. Last year, he issued an executive order that purports to end the practice of automatically granting citizenship to babies born in the United States—as has been the norm since the late 19th century. Despite Trump visiting oral arguments in an apparent attempt to intimidate the justices, the Supreme Court struck down the order this June. Yesterday, Trump attempted to do some of the same things via new executive orders. One is intended to deny automatic citizenship to children born to people living in the United States while working for a foreign government and children of people declared to be terrorists or adversaries of the U.S. It would also deny citizenship to people born in U.S. territories if Congress passes a proposed law allowing that, creating a new group of stateless people. The second order is intended to prevent the practice of “birth tourism,” in which people visiting the United States on tourist visas give birth to babies who are then U.S. citizens. Legal experts and advocates say the orders are unconstitutional, and they are certain to be challenged in court. Trump’s loss at the Supreme Court seems to make these orders a long shot. As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his opinion for the Court, “children born of parents unlawfully or temporarily present in the United States” satisfy the relevant conditions and thus “under the Constitution, they are citizens at birth.” The language in the orders about “alien enemies” is another likely area for dispute, not because anyone is eager to welcome the children of bona fide adversaries but because this administration has made absurd claims about illegal immigration constituting an “invasion,” which makes no sense on its face and has been rejected by federal judges. Trump’s announcement of the orders at the White House yesterday was full of fabrications, exaggerations, and lies. Trump claimed that the Fourteenth Amendment “was meant for the babies of slaves. It was—it was right after—one week or two weeks after the Civil War ended.” In fact, it passed three years later, in 1868. The presidential adviser Stephen Miller echoed the same idea, saying that the amendment “had no other meaning and purpose outside of that, and that’s been clear, obviously, since the day that it was passed.” When a politician uses the word obviously—like frankly—that’s a good sign that what follows will be neither obvious nor true. If this had been obvious since 1868, the U.S. wouldn’t have acted otherwise for more than a century, and the Supreme Court would have ruled in favor of the administration. Trump’s claims about birth tourism were even further off base. The president isn’t making the idea up—just wildly exaggerating it. Asked by a reporter how many people are engaging in the practice, Trump said, “I can tell you right now. Hundreds of thousands. Hundreds of thousands.” This number appears to be pulled out of thin air. During Supreme Court oral arguments, Solicitor General John Sauer, arguing on behalf of Trump, was asked how commonly birth tourism occurs and replied, “No one knows for sure.” In 2020, the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports much stricter laws, estimated the number at between 20,000 and 26,000 births each year, out of roughly 3.6 million babies born in the United States. By attempting to end or restrict birthright citizenship in order to address these issues, Trump is trying to use a bulldozer to achieve a task that calls for a small mallet. The law already prohibits fraudulent visa applications, and the Justice Department has prosecuted people for birth tourism in the past. Trying to undermine birthright citizenship risks jettisoning one of the fundamental bases of modern American society to deal with a minor challenge. Trump could have tried another path. Justice Brett Kavanaugh offered the White House a potential lifeline in his concurrence in the birthright case, suggesting that despite the plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment, Congress could pass a law altering birthright citizenship. The likelihood of such a bill succeeding seems very low, and pushing it through would require sustained attention from Trump. Instead, he’s trying to achieve his goals through executive orders, which are both easily reversed by a future president and have already proved unsuccessful. But the president has a demonstrated weakness for this kind of grand, overreaching presidential gesture. Last month, after a member of the U.S. men’s national soccer team was suspended for a game in the World Cup, Trump decided to use his position to exert some pressure, calling FIFA President Gianni Infantino to try to get the suspension waived. In a direct sense, it worked—FIFA allowed the player to participate—but it may have backfired. Belgium, the American opponent, was incensed, and trounced the United States 4–1. Trump ended up looking obnoxious and corrupt, but didn’t even get a victory out of it. The player in question, by the way, was Folarin Balogun—a U.S. citizen by birth because his mother, while pregnant and visiting family, got stuck in the United States. Related: The revolutionary idea that remade the New World The other case for birthright citizenship

AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Hawaii’s state primary An ongoing corruption scandal involving Hawaii’s lieutenant governor looms over Saturday’s state primary as nine candidates jockey to replace her. Meanwhile, a longtime Democratic congressman who bucked his party and supported one of President Donald Trump’s top legislative priorities faces a tough primary challenge. Read More.

FAA orders crack inspections for hundreds of Boeing 737 Max jets The Federal Aviation Administration this week ordered inspections for hundreds of Boeing planes, following reports of cracks in some older models. Read More.

On August 3, 2026, Dr. Ronald Lawson PhD, died. He was a con traversal figure in Adventism, He was seldom welcomed and often dismissed Yet throughout it all he remained on the far distant edge of this Church. As a historian/sociologist he once traveled the world interviewing son 4,500 SDA members as to their understanding and relationship to Adventism. His research was published in the scholarly journals. The following Spectrum provides more information on his life https://spectrummagazine.org/news/ronald-lawson-trailblazing-gay-adventist-sociologist-scholar-and-advocate-dies-at-86/ It should be clearly stated that I differed with his understanding of certain Biblical issues. In those areas my understanding conforms to main-line Adventism. I also agree with an application of those beliefs that demonstrates grace rather than legalism. I once asked him to evaluate my understanding of certain aspects of SDAs living in Germany under Hitler, In his response he clearly informed me that my suggestion totally lacked historical evidence. With the announcement of his death, many have posted on the Internet their thoughts as to how he will spend eternity. I do not consider this to be either helpful or Christian. I ask that such not be posted here in Club Adventist. Sometimes Adventists point to scandals in other Christian groups an ignore that such has happened in Adventism. One such involving the highest levels of Adventism occurred while I was living in Denver. I am well aware of it. Dr. Lawson wrote a 43-page report of it which is available on the Internet, I consider it to be just, accurate and helpful. Those with probably a superficial knowledge of Dr, Lawson will probably remember him as a co-founder of SDA Kinship. The General Conference filed a lawsuit requesting that Kinship be banned from using the trademarked name Adventist The GC was represented by a well qualfied legal team and expected an easy victory. The G/c team was matched by the pro bono team that defended Kinship, The followoing rticle informs as to that litigation. https://ronaldlawson.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/kinship-goes-to-trial.pdf The final decision of the Court was definitive:: The GC could not prevent the use by Kinship of the word Adventist./ It also opened that use by others in other ways

From 'The Lion' to 'The Tiger': Conservative Trump allies gain ground in Latin America When Abelardo de la Espriella takes office as Colombia's president on Friday, he'll become the latest conservative to helm a Latin American country. Read More. ps:Right! All he is is billionaire that trump can control, period!!!!! US promises $1bn in security aid to Colombia as new rightwing president pledges drugs crackdown Trump ally Abelardo De La ‌Espriella vows to start ‘profound transformation’ of country’s destiny as he is sworn in https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/08/us-promises-1bn-in-security-aid-to-colombia-as-new-rightwing-president-pledges-drugs-crackdown? ps:I can see where this is going!!