All Activity

Shipwrecked Wine Jars Discovered Near Sicily “You can’t imagine what’s down here.” That was the reaction of diver Giacomo De Mola when he realized that what he took for a large rock on the Mediterranean seafloor was actually a pile of ancient pottery vessels. De Mola described approaching the site off Mazara del Vallo, Sicily, in poor visibility and suddenly seeing “a vast expanse of amphorae” below. The artifacts are part of a Roman shipwreck located roughly 3 miles offshore, at a depth of about 150 feet. It contains hundreds of vessels (most identified as Dressel 1A amphorae), two lead anchor stocks (an anchor’s top horizontal crossbar), and another unidentified lead structure. Alessandro Giuli from the Italian Ministry of Culture suggests, “This is one of the most important underwater archaeological discoveries of recent years.” https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-rome/shipwrecked-wine-jars-discovered-near-sicily/?

Elite Ukrainian drone unit brings the war to Moscow’s doorstep A team of AP journalists got a rare glimpse into a rapidly expanding part of Ukraine’s war effort: Long-range drones designed to carry the war deep inside Russia, striking military, industrial and logistical sites far from the front line. Read more. Why this matters: Kyiv has stepped up its attacks on Russia this year, with long-range missiles and swarms of drones targeting military industries and energy facilities. It has also increasingly pummeled giant Wildberries depots, burning billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise belonging to the Russian online retail giant. Those attacks have brought the war home to the Russian public, and forced Russia’s military to stretch air defenses over a larger area, disrupted airports, sparked fuel shortages and undermined morale in Russia. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ WATCH: Ukraine’s drone warriors US Army will shut down a unit in Europe focused on learning drone warfare Why Russia’s ballistic missiles are increasingly getting through Ukrainian defenses Zelenskyy details rift with Ukraine’s dismissed Defense Minister Fedorov

Drug prices have declined sharply, and Trump is taking credit. The reason behind the drop is complex President Donald Trump has been taking credit for new federal data that shows U.S. prescription drug prices fell 0.8% in July and are down 3.1% from a year ago, the steepest year-over-year drop since 1963. Read more. Why this matters: The plunging prices, the White House said, resulted from the Republican president’s “most favored nation” drug deals with pharmaceutical firms and the TrumpRx website. The real picture is more complicated, said drug pricing experts, who noted that other factors, including a law from Democratic President Joe Biden’s time in office that allowed Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, are potentially more significant contributors to the latest consumer price index figures. Also at play, they said, are generic and biosimilar products that have come onto the market, offering competition that drives down the price of expensive brand-name and biologic drugs. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Carney warned about economic coercion. Now Trump is testing the Canadian prime minister Trump wants the midterms to be about himself. That may not help in a rare Nebraska swing district Jared Kushner meets with Democratic leader Jeffries with House control at stake in November Pete Buttigieg returns to South Carolina as he weighs another White House run

He was waiting for his son to return from the USS Lincoln. Then Border Patrol arrested him When Luis Manuel Aviles was arrested by immigration authorities, his son Joshua Aviles was entering his ninth month on the USS Abraham Lincoln with the Navy — a vessel that set a U.S. military record for uninterrupted time at sea, stirring concerns about supply shortages and deteriorating mental health among soldiers. Read more. What to know: Luis Manuel Aviles, 48, was arrested after leaving his house to take his car to the mechanic, according to his wife, Argelia Aviles. She said her husband, a handyman in Key West, Florida, has a permit to work in the United States. Originally from Nicaragua, he has lived in the U.S. for 19 years. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Border Patrol agents arrested Luis Aviles on Saturday in Key West and that he will remain in ICE custody while the government seeks to deport him. “Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation’s laws,” the department said Sunday. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Takeaways from AP’s review of military families detained under Trump’s immigration crackdown

THIS DAY IN HISTORY August 24 79 Mount Vesuvius erupts After centuries of dormancy, Mount Vesuvius erupts in southern Italy, devastating the prosperous Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and killing thousands of people. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 19th Century 1873 Elusive Mount of the Holy Cross photographed 1814 British troops set fire to the White House Cold War 1954 Congress passes Communist Control Act Crime 1981 John Lennon’s killer sentenced 2012 Killer in Norway massacre is sentenced European History 1572 Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre Latin American & Caribbean History 1821 Spain accepts Mexican independence Space Exploration 2006 Pluto is demoted U.S. Presidents 1814 George Washington’s portrait saved from British looters Vietnam War 1969 U.S. unit refuses commander’s order World War I 1914 Poet Alan Seeger volunteers in French army World War II 1941 Hitler suspends euthanasia program

🏁 1 for the road: D.C. Prix President Trump waves the green flag to start the Freedom 250 Grand Prix race with first lady Melania Trump at his side. Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times Axios D.C.'s Gabe Hiatt reports from D.C.'s first IndyCar race: Military flyovers buzzed above the National Mall. Race cars roared past the Capitol at 180 mph. President Trump waved the green flag. The race marking America's 250th birthday got an American winner. Florida driver Kyle Kirkwood celebrated alongside a bald eagle. Kyle Kirkwood after winning yesterday's Freedom 250 Grand Prix. Photo: Eric Lee/Getty Images The National Mall felt like a giant national picnic. Fans sprawled across the grass and packed shaded tents between games of cornhole and ladder golf. President Trump rides in "The Beast" ahead of the race yesterday. Photo: Daniel Heuer/Reuters Trump took a ceremonial lap around the track in the presidential limousine, known as "The Beast." Spectators watch drivers compete during yesterday's Freedom 250 Grand Prix. Photo: Alex Kent/The New York Times Seven flyovers thundered overhead, including a low-flying Air Force One — shaking the ground.

👢 Texas turns on data centers A data center in Ashburn, Va. Photo: Caroline Gutman for The New York Times Texas Gov. Greg Abbott delivered one of the starkest warnings yet from a Republican to the AI industry, saying data center companies deserve the backlash they're facing, Axios' Andrew Pantazi and Ben Geman report. Why it matters: Abbott is the latest governor to sharply change course on the AI data center boom he once enthusiastically courted, as local opposition becomes a potent political force. 🤠 Zoom out: Texas is among the hottest data center markets, with developers initially attracted by a pro-business state that has ample amounts of natural gas and renewables, energy infrastructure, and land. Abbott told ABC's Jonathan Karl on "This Week" that the backlash stems from the rapid buildout and developers' failure to win community support. "They basically dug their own grave for the problem that's been caused for them," Abbott said. "And that's why they got the backlash they deserve." 📻 President Trump defended data centers during an interview with his former fixer, Michael Cohen, aired yesterday on 77 WABC in New York. Trump told Cohen that the U.S. was leading China in AI "by a lot" and that data centers were not taking power from the grid. "They're making their own power plants. They're building the most beautiful, you've never seen power plants like this," Trump said. "Communities that don't take a data center, they're making a mistake" because data centers create "tremendous amounts of jobs and money," he added. Read on.

Anthropic's blunt interview question Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Ben Hider/Getty Images Anthropic has a culture interview that includes a question about prioritizing mission over future share price, Axios' Madison Mills reports. CEO Dario Amodei has questioned whether newer employees are joining the AI lab for the right reasons, according to a source familiar with the conversations. The interview process gets at the heart of that tension. Behind the scenes: Candidates are asked to discuss a moral quandary they've faced and how they handled it. One applicant, who spoke to Axios on the condition of anonymity, recalled being asked how they would feel if the company someday abandoned its AI ambitions for safety reasons, sending its stock to zero. Keep reading.

💰 Bessent: "Economic D-Day" against Iran President Trump, who has said he views the Strait of Hormuz "as an American territory," posted this image on Truth Social over the weekend. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who'll hold a news conference today to detail even stronger U.S. sanctions against Iran, writes in a Financial Times op-ed posted yesterday: "At dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary." Bessent, who taught economic history at Yale, compared the "full weight of American resolve" against Iran to decisions by FDR, Churchill and the Allied powers during World War II. He warned other countries against "appeasement of the regime." The Treasury secretary argues that U.S. sanctions are working: "Inflation has rarely been higher." Reuters reported last week: "Offers of Iranian crude to Chinese buyers have declined and prices have jumped … as the U.S. blockade has cut Tehran's shipments." Full op-ed (gift link).

Why violent crime cratered Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images The U.S. is enjoying one of the steepest and most widespread crime declines in modern history. Researchers aren't exactly sure why — but they have theories, Axios' Russell Contreras writes: Research points to factors that include declining alcohol and drug use, tech to help catch suspects (including drones and license-plate readers), an aging population, tougher prosecutions and more. Why it matters: Knowing more about what's driving the violent-crime decline could help cities decide what to preserve as pandemic-era federal money fades. 📊 By the numbers: The U.S. violent-crime rate plunged 9.7% in 2025, the largest annual decline since FBI national estimates began 90 years ago. The murder rate fell 18.5% to 4.1 per 100,000 people, tying 1955 and 1956 for the lowest since national estimates began. And the decline hasn't stopped: An Axios analysis shows violent crime in big cities fell again in the first half of 2026. 💡 Criminologists describe a complicated picture of why crime is down. No one's sure, but several overlapping forces seem to be driving the drop: Vice consumption cooled: Pandemic-era spikes in alcohol consumption, illicit drug use and firearm purchases — three factors linked to the 2020–2021 homicide surge — have receded. Return to routine: COVID lockdowns disrupted community guardrails and displaced young men and teens. Employment and social routines have since stabilized. Law enforcement tech boom: Police departments are using more AI tools, predictive analytics and platforms such as Palantir's Gotham to deploy resources and identify crime hotspots. 🧠 Under-the-radar demographic and health trends are also quietly reshaping public safety: The proportion of young people in America is declining, shrinking the demographic most historically linked to street crime. In a fascinating medical twist, the explosion of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs (like Ozempic) has been clinically linked to decreased alcohol abuse and improved impulse control — two major factors in violent offenses. What we're watching: Pandemic-era federal money for local crime-fighting efforts expires at the end of the year, putting more pressure on already short-staffed police departments. An economic downturn could create another headwind: Historically, worsening economic conditions mean more crime.

Trade Talks Collapse The trade dispute between the US and Canada escalated sharply over the weekend after last-minute negotiations ended without agreement. A raft of US tariffs on Canadian goods kicked in Friday at midnight, while Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Canada would apply dollar-for-dollar tariffs going into effect Sept. 8. The new US tariffs apply a 50% levy to about $20B in Canadian imports, or roughly 5% of the goods exported to the US. Items range from alcohol to agricultural products but exclude energy-related goods (full schedule in the first three links here). Carney said the retaliatory tariffs would be equal in monetary value, with specific items listed in the coming days. Both countries and Mexico signed a free-trade agreement replacing NAFTA during President Donald Trump’s first term. Trump declined a 16-year extension in July, switching to an annual review (see an analysis of issues). Looking for a 101 on tariffs? Get an overview here.

I Scream, You Scream While ice cream's exact origins are hard to pinpoint, frozen dairy desserts have a history dating back to ancient China. Seventh-century documents refer to a frozen milk dish that eventually evolved into a soft blend, which many consider the earliest version of ice cream. > Watch a visual history of the frozen treat. (More, w/video) > See where your favorite ice cream ranked among Americans' favorite flavors. (More) Around 800 CE, Arab conquerors of the Persian Empire began mixing dairy into the syrup-infused cold treat sharbat. In the 16th century, the Italians concocted their take on the dessert, leading to sorbetto. Around the same time, the royal court in India began freezing condensed milk, pistachios, and saffron in conical molds to create kulfi. In the late 1600s, Paris's Café Procope first began serving gelato, a frozen dessert similar to ice cream, to the public; the trend quickly spread, particularly in Italy, where some parlors have been open since the 1700s. > Kulfi, an ice cream predecessor that's still popular in India, dates back to the 16th century. (More) > In 1694, a Sicilian in Paris opened the first gelateria, a precursor to the ice cream parlor. (More) > Ice cream, gelato, sorbet, and Italian ice are all popular cold desserts, though they have many important differences. (More) During the 19th and 20th centuries, America was the center of ice cream innovation, inventing both the sundae and the cone. When home freezers became globally available post-World War II, people could easily store their favorite treat, cementing its worldwide popularity. > In the 19th century, ice-cream-related illnesses were somewhat common in America due to vendors' poor hygiene. (More) > America's ice cream obsession began under Prohibition, with the street treat acting as a legal vice that helped ease the pain of the Great Depression. (More) Discover more: > During World War II, fighter plane turbulence was used to make ice cream. (More) > Vanilla was originally used as an additive in chocolate rather than as a stand-alone flavor. (More, w/video) > George Washington loved to serve ice cream while hosting guests and spent thousands of dollars on it in a single summer. (More)

Up-and-Coming Treatments for Narcolepsy Type 1 Narcolepsy type 1 affects your brain's ability to control your sleep and wake cycles. This lifelong condition disrupts your sleep at night, and you may feel extremely sleepy during the day. https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/cm/narcolepsy-new-treatments?

That's awful!!

Trail to the Transfiguration Part 1 The Bible depicts wickedness spreading over the world again after the Tower of Babel with the various people groups (Genesis 10:32, 11:9, Romans 5:12). The details of how this played out and the explosion of anti-God religions is a much more mysterious story. https://www.patternsofevidence.com/2026/08/14/trail-to-the-transfiguration-part-1/ Trail to the Transfiguration Part 2 Near Caesarea Philippi, at the foot of Mount Hermon, Jesus made the statement, “On this rock I will build my church” (Matt. 16:18). Six days later, Jesus’ transfiguration took place. Could these events have taken place in the same area, and what significance would that have for our understanding of them? https://www.patternsofevidence.com/2026/08/21/trail-to-the-transfiguration-part-2/?

Somali pirates hijack oil tanker off Yemen in latest attack MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somali pirates hijacked an oil products tanker off Yemen, a Somali maritime security official said, the latest in a resurgence of piracy that has seen six commercial vessels seized since April across the Gulf of Aden and western Indian Ocean. https://apnews.com/article/somalia-piracy-yemen-puntland-5095054a9227548818dfc819d226dc76?

Fast-moving wildfire amid shifting winds threatens Reno, Nevada, forcing thousands to evacuate An out-of-control wildfire that jumped over fire trucks and made it difficult for crews to reach hot spots destroyed homes in northwest Reno, Nevada, on Sunday. Shifting winds challenged firefighters trying to bring it under control, and authorities urged some 90,000 people to evacuate. https://apnews.com/article/hawk-fire-reno-nevada-evacuations-aae2f4b77e2d4aa5678b365a2ee377e6?

US and Canada plunge deeper into a trade war After trade negotiations crumbled at the eleventh hour, U.S. President Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on scores of Canadian imports kicked in Saturday. The new levies are expected to affect about 5% of Canada’s annual exports to the U.S., roughly $20 billion in goods. Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney quickly promised Saturday that his government would roll out “dollar for dollar” retaliatory measures starting Sept. 8. Experts warn steeper tariffs raise costs for businesses and almost always trickle down to households in the form of higher prices. Read more. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Iran’s president says US memorandum is best path out of stalled war Federal judge vacates Trump policy that suspended processing of immigration visas from 75 countries Supreme Court’s chief justice allows work on Trump’s $400M White House ballroom to continue for now Arizona AG declines to charge Gov. Katie Hobbs over pay-to-play allegations Why the bond market is flexing its muscles, and why everyone needs to care Trump announces plan to lower beef prices, but ranchers and some Republicans are already balking MAHA activists urge Trump against promoting coal to power energy-hungry AI data centers Pentagon dismisses Stars and Stripes leadership after editor, reporter oppose military interference Federal officials announce water cuts as Colorado River supplies continue to plunge TikTok reaches $400 million settlement with US Justice Department over children’s privacy FACT FOCUS: Census Bureau report does not prove Trump’s claim about noncitizen voting in 2020 WATCH: Trump transforms White House Rose Garden with historical statues

👟 Robots smash human records Photo: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images In Beijing yesterday, two robots ran faster than Usain Bolt's 9.58-second world record in the 100-meter sprint, clocking 9.39 seconds. Braking was another matter: The machines slammed into a thick mat after the finish line. The five-day World Humanoid Robot Games, with 2,000+ robots, combines sports with simulated factories, restaurants and offices, Reuters reports. The intrigue: China makes the majority of the world's humanoid robots. The U.S. has stepped up scrutiny. Reality check: Humanoid robots can run quicker than the fastest humans. Now comes the real test: Can they handle packaging and warehouse operations, and reliably perform precision tasks like connecting cables — working like humans in less flashy jobs? Photo: VCG via Getty Images A humanoid robot plays tennis during the opening ceremony. Photo: Tingshu Wang/Reuters One of the robots caught fire after a 100-meter race. Get the latest.

🚁 Fighting fires from above A helicopter battles a wildfire in Simi Valley, Calif., in May. Photo: Hans Gutknecht/L.A. Daily News via Getty Images Aerial firefighters are responding to this year's busy, unpredictable and deadly wildfire season with more missions, more aircraft and new tech, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick writes. Fighting fires from above is uniquely dangerous, with pilots flying low over often-rugged terrain and through smoky, low-visibility conditions. Sam Davis, CEO of aerial firefighting company Bridger Aerospace, tells Axios that several factors contribute to tougher wildfire seasons: hotter temperatures, dry forests with wildfire fuel, and more people moving into wildfire-prone areas. Bridger is developing AI-powered fire modeling tech designed to predict a wildfire's next move, Davis says. Read on.

🏎️ It's Race Day! Race car driver Josef Newgarden taking a practice run past the U.S. Capitol yesterday. Photo: Alex Brandon/AP Even for well-traveled IndyCar drivers, today's Freedom 250 Grand Prix track with the U.S. Capitol in the background is awe-inspiring. "We get to race at a lot of cool cities, but this one is by far the best that we've ever had," IndyCar driver Kyle Kirkwood told AP. "Going by the Capitol building, the views here, all the architecture of all the buildings around here, all the museums, it's stuff that you dream of." The 1.7-mile track includes a lengthy straightaway down Pennsylvania Avenue and another across the National Mall. The Air & Space Museum and National Gallery of Art are both inside the course's perimeter, with a fan zone in between. Kids walking through the Freedom 250 Grand Prix fan zone yesterday. Photo: Allison Robbert/AP The Freedom 250 race begins at 1:10 p.m. ET and stretches 250 miles (147 laps) — the second-longest street race in IndyCar history. President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are expected to take an honorary lap in the Beast before the 25 drivers zoom through Washington's streets in a 180-mph blur. Get the latest.

🤖 Synthetic everything Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images A shadowy polling firm confessed this past week to faking surveys in two marquee races — then claimed the entire operation was a "short-term social experiment" on misinformation. Why it matters: An AI-enabled flood of synthetic and outright fabricated content is wreaking havoc on reality, poisoning the signals people rely on to understand politics, business and culture, Axios' Neal Rothschild writes. 📊 Catch up quick: Median Strategies, a previously unknown polling outfit with little public footprint, surfaced this summer with two blockbuster surveys that were quickly absorbed into the political conversation. In Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary, Median's fake poll showed democratic socialist Francesca Hong leading Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley by 23 points — reinforcing a broader consensus that cast Hong as the clear favorite. Crowley ultimately won by half of a percentage point. In Los Angeles, Median reported Mayor Karen Bass leading City Council member Nithya Raman by nearly 12 points. Bass cited the poll as evidence her campaign was "gaining momentum," only to delete her post after the survey was exposed as bogus. 21-year-old recent college grad Rahil Prakash revealed himself as the person behind Median's operation in an interview with The Guardian. 💥 The big picture: The cost of deception is plummeting. Robocalls using AI to imitate Joe Biden's voice discouraged thousands of people from voting ahead of the 2024 New Hampshire Democratic primary. Businesses are also grappling with terrifying new risks. North Korean operatives have built "a secret workforce" inside U.S. companies, using stolen identities, AI tools and U.S.-based facilitators to land remote jobs, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation (gift link). Global consultancy Arup lost more than $25 million after an employee joined a video call with deepfake versions of company executives and followed instructions to transfer money to various bank accounts. 🥶 Not even the weather has been spared: Alabama meteorologist James Spann said he fielded more than a dozen questions about an imaginary late-August "cold wave" this week after AI engagement farms churned out bogus forecasts online.

The "everything's in play" election Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Ten weeks (72 days) from Election Day, the Senate battlefield is sprawling — and stretching deep into Trump country. Why it matters: In a normal year, Republicans wouldn't think twice about Alaska, Kansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska or Texas. This isn't a normal year, Axios' Hans Nichols and Stef W. Kight report. Republicans expect all six states to revert to their MAGA mean. But the party isn't betting on it. Democrats have more openings to attack, leaving Republicans with more states to defend. 👂 Here's what we're hearing: Democrats are within striking distance in Iowa, Alaska and Texas. They're longer shots in Mississippi and Kansas. An independent candidate in Nebraska refuses to go away. Democrats' clearest path to 51 starts with holding Michigan and picking up North Carolina and Ohio. Maine is probably next on their list. Then they need just one more. Driving the news: On Thursday afternoon, the Texas and Iowa Senate races were moved to "toss-up" by Cook Political Report. They were "lean Republican." That makes six GOP seats rated toss-ups or lean Democratic. 👀 The bottom line: At the start of the cycle, Cook Political Report called Democrats' path to a Senate majority "herculean." Last week, Cook's Jessica Taylor declared the battle for the Senate a "toss-up, but one in which Republicans may still hold the slimmest of advantages — especially given Democrats' headache in Michigan." More on each close race.

August 23, 2026 Good morning. Today, we’re covering a murder trial in Massachusetts that has become a proxy for how people view society’s ills. A close-up of Lindsay Clancy in court on Friday. Pool photo by Mark Chavous Justice for Lindsay? By Shaila Dewan I cover criminal justice. In the hours before the courthouse in Plymouth, Mass., opens, hundreds of women clad in pink have been massing outside. They’ve come to support Lindsay Clancy, the mother on trial for killing her three young children, ages 5, 3 and 8 months. In almost any other case, it would be an odd declaration of allegiance. But Clancy is not a typical murder suspect. She attempted for months after the birth of her third child to get treatment for what she reported was her increasing postpartum derangement. Then she killed her children, she has admitted, in what she says was a state of psychosis. Closing arguments begin tomorrow. (Here’s what to know about the trial.) Should she be treated like an ordinary killer? That question is a Rorschach test for Americans fascinated by this case. Some say Clancy was failed by a system that doesn’t take postpartum mental illness seriously enough. “It should not take tragedy for people to pay attention to mental health,” said Renee Kimball, the organizer of the courthouse demonstration. Other people are horrified by arguments like that, saying they ignore the facts of this incomprehensible crime. “I don’t look at her and feel sorry for her,” said the former Fox News host Megyn Kelly. “Three kids are dead!” Whatever the jury decides, for many people the case has become a proxy for all manner of perceived societal ills. The meanings of a tragedy One perspective on this calamity remains straightforward: Clancy killed her children and must pay the price. That is the view of the prosecution (which has charged her with first-degree murder, a crime with a mandatory life sentence) as well as several pundits. A headline on one conservative site put it this way: “Lindsay Clancy Defenders Are Just as Sick as She Is.” But others see her case as evidence of a nation that neglects new mothers and fails to properly care for maternal mental health. Clancy, a labor and delivery nurse who experienced debilitating insomnia and other symptoms, visited the emergency room twice, went to a day program, called a suicide hotline and checked into a residential program, which discharged her. “I really need help,” she messaged her psychiatric nurse practitioner. She reported intrusive thoughts, received therapy over Zoom and got 30 prescriptions for 13 medications. But nobody ever diagnosed her with postpartum psychosis, an emergency that would have warranted hospitalization. For that reason, many view the children’s deaths as a product not of individual depravity but of a broken medical system. Hundreds of women have posted on social media about their own postpartum struggles and expressed empathy for Clancy. Allie Beth Stuckey, a conservative Christian commentator and a fan of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., told her viewers that she had a split reaction when she heard about the case. She felt “immediate disgust and anger,” she said, but also a recognition of “how dark and how out-of-control for some women postpartum can be.” Supporters of Lindsay Clancy outside the courthouse on Thursday. Josh Reynolds/Associated Press Lenience for moms? Our thinking about cases like these has changed over the decades. Twenty-five years ago, a Texas nurse named Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the bathtub and then wrapped them in sheets. Her defense, too, said she was suffering from psychosis. (She wanted to be executed, though, because she believed that the Devil lived within her, her lawyer, George Parnham, said in an interview.) The jury found her guilty, but she got a new trial and was found not guilty by reason of insanity. After that, Parnham pushed state lawmakers to adjust the strict definition of insanity and to allow a lighter sentence for mothers with postpartum mental disorders. He made little headway then, but now people are more open about mental illness. “We don’t think about people who struggle mentally as automatically just not tough enough, malingerers — just fakers — in the way that we might have 20, 30 years ago,” said Michelle Oberman, a legal scholar who has studied cases of mothers who kill. Today, some three dozen countries offer juries an option between murder and insanity, one that recognizes the particular mental vulnerabilities that can arise after birth and set a significantly lower penalty for mothers who kill an infant. One similar bill has passed in the United States, in Illinois. Still, the question of whether mental illness diminishes culpability remains in dispute, and many states in recent decades have made it harder to use an insanity defense. (The tide began to turn when a jury acquitted John Hinckley Jr. on the basis of insanity after his attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.) Five states have eliminated the insanity defense altogether. In cases like the Clancy killings, the debate may boil down to this: Is the crime so heinous that insanity cannot excuse it, or is it so heinous that only insanity can explain it? Click the video below to see the scene outside the courthouse. THE LATEST NEWS Trade Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, said his country was “at war” with the United States after the Trump administration imposed new 50 percent tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. By walking away, Carney chose a road that no major U.S. ally has taken: With his country’s economy on the line, he stood up to President Trump, our Canada bureau chief writes. The tariffs risk a tit-for-tat spiral that could inflict harm on the U.S. economy. Some strange items will be more expensive for Americans: buoys, dog muzzles and capes. War in Iran Iranians are struggling under American sanctions. A taxi driver told The Times about his reduced purchasing power. A start-up in West Palm Beach, Fla., is making interceptors capable of knocking Iranian drones out of the sky. Its success involved the Trumps and a golf course. Politics Polls and prediction markets shape how candidates campaign and how voters vote. When they’re wrong — as they have been for Democrats this primary season — the consequences can be serious. Trump rallied in South Carolina for Darline Graham, who is running for her brother Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat, and implored Republicans to “pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot.” With an unpopular war and high prices agitating voters, these midterms resemble the 2006 election, our chief Washington correspondent writes. In that one, Democrats romped. Signs of discontent are everywhere in Ohio. Will that turn a deep-red state purple? Other Big Stories The New York Times A.I. is everywhere in China — on street corners, in taxis, in convenience stores. Take a stroll in this interactive feature and see for yourself. Tech giants like Google and Microsoft have made themselves essential to American schools. That gives them influence over how and what children learn. Bigger, hotter wildfires are erasing the great forests of the Western U.S., from Oregon to New Mexico. FROM OPINION Women often tell their doctors they’re fine, even if they’re not. It’s time to break that habit, Allison Sweet Grant, a former nurse practitioner, writes. Companies surveil you and use that data to change the prices they set. Stronger pricing laws could change that, Stephanie T. Nguyen, a former Federal Trade Commission leader, writes. Free this week: Play all 3 Crosswords. You can access every new crossword puzzle through August 23. Whether you have seconds or 60 minutes, there’s a puzzle for everyone. Start solving today. MORNING READS We’ve made these links free for you. A demonstration this month against a planned data center in Pittsburg, Calif. Aubrey Trinnaman for The New York Times A common enemy: Teenagers across the United States, and across the political spectrum, are protesting the construction of A.I. data centers in their communities. “The Necessary Conversation”: The parents are MAGA. The children are liberal. They’re talking out their differences on YouTube. California dreams: Prince Harry and Meghan went west to build an empire. Like so many before them, their Hollywood dreams fizzled out. Keep it down: Universal Studios designed its new roller coaster to be “whisper quiet.” It underestimated how loud riders would scream. SPORTS M.L.B.: The Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton could miss the rest of the season after his third calf strain this year, including two during rehab. Tennis: Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz are teaming up for mixed doubles at the U.S. Open, where Novak Djokovic and the women’s No. 1, Aryna Sabalenka, are a team, too. N.F.L.: The Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson was booed in his first appearance in front of home fans since they cheered when he was carted off with a torn Achilles in October 2024. He called the boos “disrespectful.” BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “The Breakup,” by Kurt Andersen. Andersen’s zeitgeisty dystopian novel opens with epigraphs from Charles Dickens, Donald Rumsfeld and Joan Didion — an unlikely group of voices that sets the tone for the cautionary tale that follows. The year is 2045. After a civil war, the United States has devolved into two factions: a left-leaning collection of states and the right-leaning Free American Republic. Against this fractious backdrop we meet Natalie Frederick and Ash Zimbalist (Andersen completists will recognize the surname from “Turn of the Century”), a separated couple who reunite for a college tour with their younger child. “Domestic dramas are already thick on the ground in American fiction,” our reviewer, Jonathan Dee, writes. “What readers of ‘The Breakup’ will come for, in this moment of what seems like unsustainable polarization and anger and wanton trampling of American civic institutions and ideals, is a vision of our near-term future that is violent and admonitory and cathartically terrible and yet somehow still survivable.” New nonfiction: The historian Jill Lepore’s book explores what happens when we abandon democracy for government by machine. Read our review. THE INTERVIEW Philip Montgomery for The New York Times “When my husband and I start arguing, if my children happen to be in the room, I will look at them and say: ‘It’s OK that we’re fighting. We’re arguing because we love each other. This is an important conversation.’ I’m kind of saying it as much to them as I am to myself.” — Priya Parker, the conflict resolution facilitator and author of the new book “The Art of Fighting,” in conversation with David Marchese. They spoke about how conflict can be a pathway to greater connection and about how to deal with some common workplace and family conflicts. Read the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Stop burning your pancakes. Just get an electric griddle, for goodness’ sake. Trick out your USB-C laptop with the best accessories. Slip on a pair of culottes, the resurgent midcalf pants with enough volume to mimic a skirt. Here are seven we recommend. Skip those “for men” detergents. Even if woodsy, tobacco-drenched scents are your speed, they stink at cleaning. MEAL PLAN Christopher Testani for The New York Times It’s late August and kids are (or soon will be) heading back to school. Margaux Laskey, an NYT Cooking editor, has some recipes to make the transition a little bit easier. You’ll want to try this slow cooker chicken and bean fideo — a comforting stew of tender chicken, pinto beans and toasted noodles. (Throw in more chipotles to dial up the heat.) She also recommends one-pot tuna orzo with zucchini, turkey chili and more. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were curtain and taciturn. Can you put eight historical events — including the development of Greek dramas, a tactic of the Persian cavalry and the rise of Beanie Babies — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz. 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