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Trump Humiliated by Instant Fact Checks After Crackpot Speech Experts were quick to clear up misconceptions in the president’s address. President Donald Trump’s underwhelming Thursday-night address was immediately undercut by experts who fact-checked his claims. In his speech, the president repeated claims that the 2020 election had been stolen, that electronic voting machines were insecure and had been compromised by foreign actors, and that China acquired 220 million U.S. voter files, among other accusations. Ben Ginsberg, a Republican election lawyer, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins immediately following the speech that, despite the president’s claims and references to declassified documents uploaded online, there was still no evidence of any effect on an election result. “What stood out to me is that there’s still no evidence of a result of any election being incorrect,” Ginsberg told Collins. “There still was not the documents, there still was not the evidence, although we’ll see what’s produced,” Ginsberg said, before responding to a number of specific claims Trump made. The 74-year-old, who has worked for the RNC, George Bush’s presidential campaign and the Republican Governors Association, also discussed the president’s claims about Chinese interference in the 2020 election. “The administration has cut back on the cybersecurity agency, CISA, and the Department of Justice outfit that helps states so that, in fact, if there is a problem with the 2026 election, it will be in large part because the defenses that are provided by the federal government to the states to stop that activity have been drastically cut back,” he said. Others fact-checked the president’s claims online, including former national security expert Miles Taylor, who served as the Chief of Staff of the Department of Homeland Security during Trump’s first term before making waves for questioning his fitness for office and campaigning against his re-election. “Trump suggested the ‘Deep State’ hid from him that China was trying to interfere in our elections… maybe he forgot that we personally briefed him on the threat throughout 2018,” Taylor wrote on X. “Big mistake to make claims living humans can refute.” Taylor also broadcast a livestream offering a real-time fact-check of the president’s claims, telling his viewers, “If he wants to thank anyone for protecting the elections during his administration, he can thank folks like me… we’re not going to let him get away with these lies about the 2020 election.” In addition, CNN’s Zachary Cohen noted that the documents published by the White House discussed issues that were already widely known. “The documents Trump is referring to right now, and CNN has reviewed all of them, largely discuss vulnerabilities that have been known for years and/or are reflected in the 2021 US intel community assessment,” Cohen wrote. “None of the declassified information supports the claim that any previous election results — including the 2020 presidential contest that Trump lost — were manipulated by foreign interference or fraud in a way that would’ve changed the outcome.” CNN’s Laura Coates Live featured a segment calling out Trump’s claims with senior CNN reporter Marshall Cohen, who noted that voter files like the ones supposedly accessed by China can be bought online, that the CIA found Venezuela did not have the capability to interfere with foreign elections, and that the source of the president’s claim about 250,000 non-citizens being found on voting rolls was unreliable. “When you look at the better source, the government sources that assess who’s a citizen, who’s not, it was a much smaller number, only about 28,000,” Cohen explained. The Bulwark’s Sam Stein also fact-checked the president’s claims, highlighting evidence in the documents published by the White House that contradicts Trump’s assertions that election interference was primarily conducted to disadvantage his campaign. “one of the documents that Trump has disclosed tonight has a section noting that China targeted the BIDEN campaign and does ‘not currently intend to covertly interfere to try and sway the outcome of the election,’” Stein wrote, attaching a screenshot from one of the declassified documents uploaded to the White House website. Even Fox News trod lightly in its coverage of the president’s speech, devoting just over five minutes to the address before pivoting back to the subject of Iran. Discussing the speech with Sean Hannity, White House correspondent Aishah Hasnie said of alleged evidence that electronic voting machines are easily compromised, “Fox News has not seen the evidence yet and is not in a position to evaluate the accuracy of the president’s statement and claims.” Fox News was sued for defamation in 2021 by Dominion Voting Systems after several programs across the network amplified claims that the company’s machines had been rigged to steal the 2020 election from Donald Trump. The case was settled in 2023, and Fox agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million and acknowledged the court’s ruling that it had broadcast false statements. The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-humiliated-by-instant-fact-checks-after-crackpot-speech/?

White House Melts Down as Trump’s Speech Backfires Trump had promised to reveal “really big news” during the address, but that didn’t materialize. The White House has freaked out at the response to President Donald Trump’s crackpot primetime address. In an address from the East Room of the White House on Thursday, the 80-year-old tried to convince the nation of “shocking vulnerabilities” in U.S. election security. China, he said, rigged the 2020 election, which he happened to lose to Joe Biden. Trump had promised to reveal “really big news” during the address, but, in truth, he pored over familiar grievances and proved Republicans, said to be “scared s---less” about what he was going to say, right. The only thing that was “big,” in fact, was the level to which the media quickly dismissed the president’s 27-minute rant. The reaction from the White House, in turn, was even bigger. Lackeys running the “Rapid Response 47” account were tasked with going on X to individually call out the hosts, correspondents, contributors, and networks that didn’t willingly lap up Trump’s rambling. First in their scope was Pierre Thomas, senior justice correspondent at ABC News. He had said on the network that “there is no evidence that they [China] were able to change the outcome of votes.” “From the same people who brought you the Russia Collusion Hoax. Laughable,” the official account responded. The “hoax” in question is a counter-narrative set up by top MAGA figures that attacks the legitimacy and conclusions of multiple investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election, which Donald Trump won. ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl was also in the White House’s sights. He said on Special Report that the president had exaggerated the findings in the newly declassified intelligence documents released to support his ramblings. “Fake News @jonkarl immediately went on TV to accuse President Trump of lying — even though he admitted he still has ‘a lot more to look through,’” the account handler moaned. “Notice how he doesn’t seem to care about critical intelligence being willfully kept from the President during the 2020 campaign.” The White House claims that China had access to U.S. voter data during that cycle. In a separate post, the Rapid Response account said that this “was purposely kept from President Trump and the American people in an unprecedented coverup to undermine his first administration and his 2020 campaign.” The Democratic U.S. Senator from Virginia, Mark Warner, said on Special Report that he was “embarrassed” that networks covered Trump’s “falsehoods” without scrutiny. “As a matter of fact, before I start, as an American, not as an elected official, I was embarrassed that the president of the United States went before our whole country, and networks like yours carried this as news, as opposed to a rehash of falsehoods,” Warner said. Tagging him on X, the Rapid Response account said that he “melts down over the fact that TV networks carried @POTUS’ address to the nation. Mark is furious that President Trump is bringing transparency to this long-avoided issue.” Warner and host Tony Dokoupil sparred during the broadcast, but even the MAGA-coded frontman accused Trump of lying. Rapid Response, of course, failed to mention this. “And honestly, much of what the president has said on this topic has been false,” Dokoupil told viewers. “Most notably, of course, the claim that he won the 2020 election when, of course, he did not.” Major Elliot Garrett, Chief Washington Correspondent at CBS News, wasn’t as lucky as Dokoupil. The former senior White House correspondent for Fox News was called out during the Rapid Response rampage. He was accused of “moving the goalposts.” “I hear that there is an assessment that in an abstract experiment, it was found that one type of machine might be vulnerable—one type of machine,” he had said on Special Report. The White House-linked account said this is “one type of machine too many.” MS NOW was also given the treatment for cutting away as Trump began rehashing old MAGA talking points about elections. “MSDNC — which a few call ‘MS NOW’ but many others call ‘group therapy for the mentally deranged’ — cut out immediately as @POTUS started to describe shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure. ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE,” the account ranted, to finish off a high-strung night of posting. The account’s ranting reflects Trump’s anxiety over the response to his claims. The president himself said that ABC and NBC should lose their licenses for not airing his crackpot theories. “In a rare move, NBC and ABC Fake news have both said that they would not cover this speech. They knew what it was about because of the fact that they don’t like the topic because they know how corrupt our system is and they don’t want to reveal it,” Trump said. He angrily claimed that the networks and other media were “part of a plot.” “They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. They want to keep it going. They want to protect the radical left. They can’t have a great country, and that’s true. “You can’t have a great country without free and fair elections. Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. “They use our public multi-billion-dollar-in-value airwaves for absolutely no money. They pay nothing. All we want is honesty in our elections and honesty in reporting. They pay nothing for multi-billion-dollar assets. Great damage has been done to our country. Our elections were left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen, and the trust of the American people was lost. This cannot be allowed to continue,” he added. https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-melts-down-as-trumps-speech-backfires/? ps:Each speech gets more and more pathetically desperate than the one before it!!!!!

July 17, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. President Trump resurfaced widely debunked claims about the safety of American voting systems in an address to the nation last night. And smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to disrupt life for millions. Before we get to that, though, I’m going to turn to my friend and colleague A.O. Scott, a critic at large for the Book Review who was our longtime movie critic. I asked him to help us understand the place of Homer’s epic “Odyssey” in our cultural lives right now, as Christopher Nolan’s filmed version of the tale arrives in theaters. Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures Greek life By A.O. Scott “The Odyssey,” Christopher Nolan’s 172-minute adaptation of Homer’s 2,800-year-old, 12,000-line epic poem, opens in theaters today. Back when I was reviewing movies, I would have seen it already. But nowadays I pull a different oar on this battle-weary trireme, and the nearest IMAX screen is a four-hour journey, over land and sea, from where I sit. Like Odysseus wending his way toward Ithaca, I’ll get there as soon as I can. I suspect many of you will, too. The movie is both a groundbreaking technical achievement — the first feature shot entirely in the mighty IMAX format — and a tribute to a durable and beloved work of literature. Throwback to the future That blend of old and new is especially notable given that the original “Odyssey” is one of the earliest and most powerful literary expressions of nostalgia. Compounded from the Greek words for “home” and “pain,” nostalgia has come to mean a longing for the past, and it has become a central principle of modern culture. In post-pandemic, peak streaming era, movies have become objects of nostalgia in their own right. They don’t make ’em like they used to, and more often than not we don’t see ’em like we used to — in dark rooms full of strangers, clutching tubs of popcorn and hiding our eyes at the scary parts. Hollywood, in the midst of contentious mergers and haunted by the specter of A.I., is an anxious shadow of its former imperial self. The audience that once filled the theaters is fractured and distracted. Sometimes the crowds turn out — recently for the Gen-Z horror breakouts “Backrooms” and “Obsession” and for “Toy Story 5” (speaking of nostalgia) — but such hits can feel more like a reprieve than a renaissance. With “The Odyssey,” Nolan and Universal Pictures have laid down a big ($250 million) bet that people will show up for a large-scale spectacle that evokes the grandeur of an earlier time. We’re talking about the sword-and-sandal epics of the 1950s and early ’60s, widescreen productions stuffed with modern movie stars in ancient costumes. The cast of this thing is a veritable glossary of 21st-century stardom: Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya and of course Matt Damon as the hero described (in Emily Wilson’s translation) as “a complicated man.” Christopher Nolan on the set of “The Odyssey.” Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures, via Associated Press From Trojan War to culture war A few of Nolan’s casting choices have riled up some of the people who live to get mad on the internet. These days you can’t have popular culture without a culture-war skirmish, and before anyone had seen “The Odyssey” we were subjected to a ginned-up online controversy about Lupita Nyong’o playing Helen of Troy (and her sister Clytemnestra) and Elliot Page playing a Greek soldier in the Trojan War. Nyong’o is Black and Page trans, and those objections follow a familiar anti-woke trajectory, rooted in this case in arguably anachronistic assumptions about the Mediterranean Basin in the Bronze Age, when the action takes place. What’s interesting is that both Nolan’s film and the pre-emptive ideological strike against it show how much modern souls still care about the ancient world and its stories. As someone whose journalistic beat has gone from new movies to old poems, I can’t get too mad about that. Dig in: In a rave review, Manohla Dargis calls Nolan’s film “a classic in every sense, a transporting affirmation of the art and a work of pure cinema.” In an interview with Melena Ryzik, Nolan said: “If you’re really interested in movies and the history of movies, the one thing you see absolutely is that you have to take risks to succeed. The biggest risk of all is to play it safe.” Want to (re?-)read the poem before heading to the theater? Watch this video to figure out which translation to try. Our friends over at NYT Cooking invited Damon and Tom Holland, who plays Odysseus’s son, into the kitchen for their signature Pizza Interview. Taylor Miller for The New York Times THE LATEST NEWS Trump’s Speech Doug Mills/The New York Times Trump said his speech was about building public confidence in American elections, but he spent much of it undermining them. Read takeaways. The documentary evidence that Trump claimed would prove his case appeared bound to disappoint those who expected bombshells. Analysis: Trump’s persistence in relitigating his 2020 election defeat, our chief White House correspondent writes, carries risks for American democracy. Wildfires Views from Chicago, Detroit, New York and Toronto yesterday. Ian Willms, Angelina Katsanis, Jamie Kelter Davis and Nic Antaya for The New York Times Air quality readings were so bad in some places yesterday that one public health expert said “nobody should spend time outside.” Here’s how to stay safe. More than 100 wildfires are still raging in Ontario. Smoky, hazy skies are likely to become routine across North America as climate change fuels larger, more frequent wildfires. More on Politics The Trump administration plans a permanent fence around Lafayette Square, a public space next to the White House that is frequently the site of protests. A White House teleprompter operator used his position to win around $100,000 by betting on what Trump would say in speeches, the prediction market Kalshi said. Late night hosts had thoughts. Democratic candidates, especially for the Senate, are raising more money than Republicans. (Read three more takeaways from the latest campaign finance filings.) Paul Pelosi, the 86-year-old husband of the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, had at least eight driving violations before crashing his convertible this month. Around the World Andy Burnham Isabel Infantes/Reuters Andy Burnham will become the leader of Britain’s governing Labour Party today, setting him up to become prime minister on Monday. Thousands in Ukraine protested the dismissal of the defense minister, a champion of drone warfare. The Philippines formally complained to China about an A.I.-generated video posted by a state-run Chinese publication that depicted it as a karaoke-singing monkey controlled by the United States and Japan. Other Big Stories Torrential rains have submerged much of Central Texas, killing at least two people. Dozens were rescued along the surging Guadalupe River. Astronomers have identified the first potentially habitable nearby planet with an atmosphere, a lead contender in the search for life beyond our solar system. The C.D.C. linked an outbreak of Cyclospora to iceberg lettuce sent to Taco Bell in five states. OPINIONS Older generations might be more responsible for the decline in reading than the kids, David Wallace-Wells writes. Lots of people say #MeToo is dead. That’s wrong, argues Gretchen Carlson, who founded a nonprofit to help survivors of harassment. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. MORNING READS We’ve made all of these links free for you. The New York Times Fighting fire with fire: A group in South Carolina is burning down homes to study how wildfires spread. In the video above, the climate reporter Mira Rojanasakul explains. Click to watch. Slopped: A Times tech reporter found an A.I.-generated biography of herself on Amazon, selling for $26.99. She’s not the only one. Who’s behind the drivel? Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about an Iranian billboard that depicts Trump in a coffin. TODAY’S NUMBER $12.7 million — That is the face value of the counterfeit U.S. currency seized from a factory in Colombia. The nation is one of the world’s top producers of funny money. SPORTS Baseball: M.L.B. released its 2027 calendar yesterday, with the earliest regular-season game ever, but labor negotiations could push the entire schedule back. Soccer: With the World Cup ending this weekend, take a moment to appreciate the sport’s mathematically marvelous ball. PUFF PLANETS Astronomers have discovered a pair of super-rare, super-light “super-puff” planets. They’re at least the size of Jupiter but less dense than cotton candy. A super-puff planet almost shouldn’t exist. It’s effectively a gas giant with an impossibly tiny core that should be too small to gravitationally pull in the vast volume of gases in its atmosphere. So far, 39 have been identified. Astrophysicists hope the super-puffs can help them understand the ways that giant planets can form, but so far they raise more questions than they answer. “Every single one is strange,” said one astronomer. RECIPE OF THE DAY David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks. I don’t want to turn on my stove in the middle of July. I want to open the refrigerator and cabinets and build a party board. The cool kids call it a charcuterie board. My friend Gabrielle says it’s a snack tray. Call it a grazing platter or rando antipasti. What you need: cheese, olives, crackers, tinned fish, carrot sticks, deli meats, pickled things, dips, a ramekin of mustard, some sliced baguette, fruits fresh and dried — basically, whatever is available to you right now, whatever looks good. OFFICE SPACE Yoonha Park The dance company A.I.M by Kyle Abraham recently brought a new work to The Times — literally. They performed an abridged version of their “White Space” in the office of our T Magazine. We captured the artistry with a drone. Watch. More on culture Travel to Italy, if only in your mind, to take in our critic Jason Farago’s five favorite places for art in Venice, a city of secrets and surprises. Chanel ballet flats have become the Birkin bag of the shoe-obsessed, our Styles desk observes. Find them at airport duty-free shops. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Kurt Rhoads as King Lear. Charles Erickson See Shakespeare’s “King Lear” on a hilltop overlooking the Hudson River in New York, or just read our critic’s accounting of how beautiful that can be. Take a rest day, champ. You’ll be bigger and stronger tomorrow. Clean your air, especially if smoke from the wildfires in Canada is drifting into your space. The filter-obsessed HVAC technicians at Wirecutter found the best purifiers. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was acridity. 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 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 Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren

Trump uses primetime address to raise doubts about US elections ahead of midterms President Donald Trump used a primetime address to the nation Thursday to elevate his yearslong push to raise doubts about the legitimacy of U.S. elections and dispute his 2020 loss in an appeal for more restrictive voting laws ahead of the midterms. Read more. Why this matters: Trump’s speech presented allegations of interference and influence in ways that lacked key context, while failing to produce evidence that votes had been manipulated or the election outcome had been altered. Trump used the remarks to justify his push to pass a strict voter ID bill in Congress that has not advanced because it lacks enough support from Republicans. Election security experts say the decentralized U.S. voting system, with the power over elections residing with the states instead of the federal government, is a strength. Americans vote in more than 10,000 different jurisdictions with different rules, making the nations’ elections extraordinarily complicated but safe from widespread fraud. No credible intelligence has emerged showing the vote count in 2020 was manipulated by foreign actors. Repeated audits and reviews, many run by Republicans including Trump’s then-attorney general, have found no significant fraud occurred in 2020. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ To air or not to air? Nation’s TV networks struggle to find the right balance for Trump speech Why American elections are so complicated — and secure China rejects Trump’s election interference claim as ‘groundless accusations’ Recent polling data on Trump China and Xi are seen more favorably than the US and Trump in many nations, new survey says Trump’s teleprompter operator on unpaid leave for alleged prediction market bets on speeches Acting AG meets with Epstein accusers after demand from key GOP senator Hegseth again backs a low-altitude military flyover as maneuvers draw scrutiny WATCH: Fighter jet flyover at a crowded beach Trump officials want to make testosterone drugs easier to prescribe. Is that a good idea?

THIS DAY IN HISTORY July 17 1955 Disneyland opens Disneyland, Walt Disney’s metropolis of nostalgia, fantasy and futurism, opens its doors in Anaheim, California. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 1990s 1996 TWA Flight 800 explodes midair 21st Century 2014 Eric Garner dies in NYPD chokehold 2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shot down over Russian-controlled area of Ukraine Arts & Entertainment 1967 Jimi Hendrix drops out as opening act for The Monkees Black History 2020 Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis dies Early U.S. 1763 John Jacob Astor is born European History 1936 Spanish Civil War breaks out Exploration 1938 Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan crosses the Atlantic Inventions & Science 1920 Three-point seatbelt inventor Nils Bohlin born Space Exploration 1975 Superpowers meet in space Sports 1941 Joe DiMaggio ends 56-game hitting streak U.S. Government and Politics 1984 Jesse Jackson delivers “Rainbow Coalition” speech at DNC U.S. Presidents 1945 President Harry Truman records his impressions of meeting Stalin World War I 1917 Britain’s King George V changes royal surname World War II 1945 Potsdam Conference begins 1944 An ammunition ship explodes in the Port Chicago disaster

🤖 AI boom guzzles electricity Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios Stat du jour: The combined electricity demand added by Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta between 2022 and 2025 is roughly twice New York City's annual electricity consumption, according to an estimate by Alex de Vries-Gao, a researcher at VU Amsterdam and founder of online platform Digiconomist. Why it matters: The AI industry's pursuit of ever-larger models is fueling debate over whether they'll deliver enough value to justify mounting environmental and financial costs, Axios national energy correspondent Amy Harder reports. 👀 What we're watching: The potential for AI to improve people's lives and curb emissions is playing an increasing role in tech companies' sustainability messaging. Google devoted more of this year's sustainability report to AI's environmental benefits, highlighting uses from autonomous vehicles to scaling solar power. Read on.

🎤 Feds probe Trump's longtime teleprompter guy Federal regulators are investigating whether a White House teleprompter operator capitalized on his knowledge of President Trump's prepared speech text by making trades on the prediction market Kalshi, two sources familiar with the matter tell Axios' Nathan Bomey. The speeches the person allegedly traded on included the State of the Union in February. Gabriel Perez, the teleprompter operator, is under investigation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over allegations that he bet on Kalshi "mention markets" using information on Trump's planned remarks, according to the sources. Perez, who has been Trump's prompter guy since 2016, won more than $100,000 on such trades, the sources said. What to watch: The CFTC has discussed terms of a settlement with Perez, which could include him giving back profits from the trades, sources told ABC News, which was first to report the investigation.

👀 Inside Bibi's mystery Trump meeting Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photos: Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis and Win McNamee/Getty Images. White House officials were surprised in recent days to read in the Israeli press that President Trump would host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. In fact, no meeting has been scheduled, Axios' Barak Ravid reports. Why it matters: Netanyahu has visited the Oval Office six times in the 18 months since Trump returned to office — more than any other world leader. Each of those meetings was scheduled within hours or days. This time, Netanyahu has been trying to get an appointment for more than two weeks. The fact that Trump isn't rushing to sit down with Netanyahu in front of the cameras signals not only the divergence of interests between the two, but also how disillusioned the White House is with the Israeli leader five months after they launched a war together. Behind the scenes: Two White House officials told Axios that while Netanyahu wanted to meet Trump, a meeting was never confirmed or added to the president's schedule. "Our impression was that Bibi was trying to will a meeting into existence," one of the officials said. White House officials didn't rule out the possibility of Trump meeting Netanyahu when he comes to Sen. Lindsey Graham's wake at the National Cathedral later this month. Read on.

🔥 Summer is now smoke season Smoke from Canadian wildfires causes hazy conditions in Manhattan yesterday. Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images The wildfire smoke drifting into the eyes, throats and lungs of millions of Americans and Canadians this week is a stark reminder that the planet is changing in unsettling ways, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick writes. The smoke, from wildfires raging in northern Minnesota and Canada, is causing dangerously bad air across the Midwest and Northeast — and could soon waft elsewhere. Air quality alerts have been issued in New York, Chicago, Toronto and more, with officials urging folks to stay inside. 🌎 It's too early to tie these wildfires directly to climate change. But researchers have shown that human-caused climate change is making wildfires both more likely and more intense. Forecasts show a break in the smoke tomorrow. Haze builds back by Sunday. Data: NOAA's Global Systems Laboratory One headline finding from a Climate Central report last year: "Per-person exposure to harmful wildfire smoke in the U.S. was four times higher during 2020-2024, on average each year, than during 2006-2019." The fires themselves have also destroyed homes and devastated local tourism. 😶‍🌫️ The big picture: Massive smoke events like this have happened before — most notably in 2023. They may get more common as North America's forests keep drying up, creating ideal conditions for megafires sparked by lightning and other causes. The bottom line: Americans out West have long understood "fire season." We all need to start thinking about "smoke season."

📺 Trump takeaways: Dark warning on U.S. elections President Trump cast American elections as under siege last night, describing a system riddled with vulnerabilities that hostile foreign actors and unauthorized immigrants are exploiting. The dark, foreboding 25-minute address from the East Room, which repeated fraud theories that have been debunked, served two main purposes, Axios' Alex Isenstadt and Marc Caputo report: Build support for his SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship for voter registration and is stalled in the Senate. Return to a topic that fixates him perhaps more than any other: The 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden. Citing newly released "raw" intelligence, Trump claimed that China carried out "the largest compromise of election data in history" during the 2020 election — obtaining 220 million U.S. voter files and creating "ballots for Biden." One big catch: Voter rolls listing names and addresses are readily available in nearly every state. Some even post them online to promote transparency. He also accused the intelligence community — the "Deep State" — of withholding documents describing China's activities from him when he was in his first term as president. By blaming the intel community of 2020, he excused his own administration — presumably including current CIA director John Ratcliffe, who was DNI director at the time — from catching what he now calls a huge threat. Friction point: Some in Trump's political operation believe that talking about voter fraud will motivate his voters to turn out in November. But outside of the White House, party leaders and pollsters strongly believe that swing voters don't want to hear about it. "It's a stupid, stupid move," said one Republican pollster who works on several campaigns and has tested the effectiveness of the "stolen election" narrative. "Even swing voters who think something wasn't good about the election, when they listen to Trump, just have an eyeroll," the pollster said. More takeaways ... Read the documents ... Behind the broadcast drama. ps:Oh so pathetic

China AI surges, rivalry intensifies Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios America's commanding lead in advanced AI is gone. A Chinese moonshot — literally and figuratively — has caught up to models that defined the U.S. frontier just weeks ago, at a substantially lower price, Axios' Zachary Basu, Madison Mills and Ben Berkowitz report. Why it matters: Kimi K3, a massive new model by Beijing-based Moonshot AI, threatens the foundations of America's AI boom. Its release yesterday dazzled developers, jolted Silicon Valley and reset the AI race overnight. Driving the news: Kimi immediately vaulted into the top tier of global AI, beating Anthropic's Fable 5 and OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol in front-end coding tests by AI evaluator Arena. In Arena's broader text ranking, Kimi finished ahead of Anthropic's Opus 4.8 — the company's flagship model until Fable 5 arrived in June — while costing 40% less. Unlike the premium U.S. models it's challenging, Moonshot plans to release Kimi as an open-weight model on July 27 — allowing companies and governments to customize and run it on their own systems. The big picture: Even as Chinese open-weight models have gained momentum, U.S. AI leaders and policymakers took comfort in estimates that China remained six to 12 months behind the American frontier. Between the lines: Kimi doesn't have to be the world's single best model to upend the market. Its very existence puts pressure on the pricing power of U.S. labs, the enormous valuations built around their technological edge, and the case for spending hundreds of billions of dollars on ever-larger data centers. The other side: America's frontier labs are hardly out of ammunition — and Kimi may itself reflect the power of U.S. technology. Anthropic has accused Moonshot and other Chinese labs of industrial-scale "distillation" campaigns, allegedly using millions of exchanges with advanced American models as training data for their own systems. 👉 But the strategic problem remains. Even if U.S. labs pull ahead again, China has shown it can close the gap quickly. What's next: The Trump administration needs to maintain American AI competitiveness amid calls to regulate frontier models. Tougher safety rules could slow U.S. labs just as China accelerates. Looser oversight could help them move faster, but raise the risk of releasing dangerous capabilities. The bottom line: America may still push the frontier forward. It can't stop the rest of the world from choosing a cheaper alternative. Go deeper: China's open-weight Kimi model stuns AI world with frontier-level results.

The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; "7" was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. "UP" indicated the direction of the bubbles. James

US and Iran escalate strikes across Mideast DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States and Iran exchanged strikes aimed at infrastructure and military targets on Saturday as their battle over the Strait of Hormuz intensified. https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-hormuz-strait-war-july-17-2026-2ad0cfe592eb258cb15a9eb04411d58a?

Japan enshrines male-only succession for the shrinking imperial family TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s parliament enacted a historic revision to the 19th-century Imperial House Law on Friday by insisting only paternal-lineage men can become emperor, sparking concern that the measure could doom the already shrinking imperial family. https://apnews.com/article/japan-imperial-family-succession-blood-patriarchy-cdb66fc2c64c933c98020c989938a8ee?

☀️ Parting shot! Photo: Paula Scholer A stunner snapped by reader Paula Scholer in Utah's Arches National Park in May with an iPhone 12 Pro. Paula's title for the pic: "Captured Spirit."

Natural gas supplies ‘not looking good’ for Southcentral Alaska this winter, Enstar says Southcentral Alaska’s largest natural gas utility said Tuesday it might not have the gas to make it through this winter. That’s after state regulators last Wednesday denied Enstar’s request that would’ve expanded natural gas storage in Kenai, as the region faces a looming natural gas shortage. Read More.

Average 30-year US mortgage rate climbs to 6.55%, highest level in nearly a year The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed this week to its highest level in nearly a year, driving up borrowing costs for prospective homebuyers. Read More.

🚁 1 tech thing: School safety drones Photo: Campus Guardian Angel A Colorado charter school opening next month could become the state's first school to install drones designed to confront shooters, Axios' Robert Sanchez reports. John Adams Academy is joining a growing national experiment with a system called Campus Guardian Angel. 🚔 The small drones emit high-pitched chirping noises, shoot pepper balls and can ram suspects at speeds of nearly 60 mph. Pilots in Austin would use drone cameras and school maps to find shooters and send live video to police. Yes, but: The company's drones have yet to be used in an actual school shooting. Go deeper.

🍄 Eli Lilly has agreed to buy psychedelic treatment developer AtaiBeckley for up to $3.8 billion. Go deeper.

🏛️ Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) says he won't vote to confirm acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to the permanent role until Blanche meets with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse. Get the latest. ⛱️ Johnson's July gambit House Speaker Mike Johnson wants to hold a conspicuously early vote on a short-term funding bill next week — more than two months before the government runs out of money. Why it matters: Johnson may be setting himself up to win in September by losing in July. A failed vote on a short-term spending stopgap could potentially strengthen the GOP leader's hand in another difficult challenge: securing $67 billion for the Pentagon to replenish its munitions through the reconciliation process, according to conservative lawmakers. ⚡️ An early defeat on a continuing resolution would give Johnson a pretext to shoehorn a spending stopgap bill into a September reconciliation package. Call it Reconciliation 3.0 Plus. "The Dems know, 'OK, if we don't do the CR, we'll do it in a [reconciliation] bill," Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) told us. 👀 What we're watching: Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are on starkly different wavelengths when it comes to a third reconciliation package. 🤔 "You've got to think long and hard about this. It's a much easier proposition in the House," Thune said today. But pairing a continuing resolution with reconciliation could have two advantages. First, it makes it harder for House Republicans to oppose the package. It would also present the Senate with a take-it-or-leave-it choice: accept the House reconciliation bill or share the blame for a government shutdown. Zoom out: Republicans are increasingly worried about spending the final month of the midterm campaign defending a government shutdown. House Republicans have little confidence Democrats will provide the votes needed to pass a funding extension. The planned July vote is designed to put both Democrats and the Senate on notice that Republicans don't believe they can count on bipartisan support for a continuing resolution. The other side: GOP senators are deeply skeptical about pivoting to a CR in July. They want to give the regular appropriations process time to work. And they are aware that public talk of a stopgap measure risks undercutting bipartisan negotiations over full-year spending bills. 🚗 Driving the news: Johnson said today he plans to bring a clean continuing resolution to the House floor next week before lawmakers leave for the August recess. (The Senate is scheduled to remain in session for two additional weeks.) But there's little reason to believe it will pass. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries didn't rule out Democratic support for a clean CR but warned Republicans against taking a "my-way-or-the-highway approach." Meanwhile, some conservatives are threatening to oppose any must-pass spending bill that doesn't include the SAVE America Act. Johnson told reporters he "hasn't decided" whether to attach the measure. Between the lines: Conservatives have been pushing leaders to use reconciliation to fund parts of the government, and a failed CR vote could give Johnson political cover with frustrated appropriators. But the strategy has its detractors. "I've heard it talked about, and I think it's a bad idea," Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), an Appropriations Committee member, told us last month about using reconciliation for appropriations. Yes, but: That entire strategy rests on Republicans actually passing a third reconciliation bill — a prospect about which many lawmakers remain skeptical. The bottom line: Even if the continuing resolution fails, forcing the vote allows Johnson to argue that Republicans exhausted the normal appropriations process before turning to reconciliation. — Kate Santaliz and Hans Nichols

🎰 Federal regulators are investigating whether a White House teleprompter operator capitalized on his knowledge of President Trump's prepared speech text by making trades on the prediction market Kalshi. Go deeper. Trump's Labor nominee touts experience and fraud prevention as he seeks confirmation President Donald Trump's nominee to run the Department of Labor emphasized a steady grounding in labor law built on years of experience in private practice, academia and the federal government as he looked to win over senators in a confirmation hearing Thursday. Read More. Trump administration races the clock to rebuild US tariff wall knocked down by Supreme Court The U.S. Treasury last year swelled with revenue from President Donald Trump’s double-digit taxes on imports from almost every country on earth. Read More. Trump media firm plans to sell high speed access to Truth Social posts, possibly Trump's own President Donald Trump's media company is planning to charge for special high-speed access to Truth Social posts, including possibly his own affecting national security and financial markets. Read More.

🚔 ICE says all field offices will have body cams soon An ICE agent wears a body camera in March in New York City. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Half of all ICE field offices now have body cameras for agents, with the rest expected to get them within 60 days, Axios' Brittany Gibson reports. That's after ICE agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis earlier this year. Two more people were killed this month in Texas and Maine, where officers weren't wearing cameras. 📷 Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem ordered immediate body camera use in Minneapolis in February, pledging to expand the technology nationwide. Congress then budgeted an extra $20 million for DHS in April to provide body cameras to ICE agents. A DHS spokesperson said: "ICE will ensure each arrest team has an individual wearing a body camera. Ensuring all of our ICE law enforcement officers have body cameras nationwide is a top priority for DHS." The agency said that the recent federal government shutdowns slowed the camera rollout. Critics say ICE's camera delays are unacceptable amid questions about agents' training and competency. Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), who represents the Houston area, said after the ICE shooting there last week: "I think the blame on the shutdown is just ludicrous. They were given $20 million just for this purpose." Go deeper. ps:Should've had these all along!!!!!!!!!!

10 Future Windows 11 Features You Can Try Today Microsoft is focused on addressing complaints with Windows 11 this year, and you can test out major improvements in Insider builds before anyone else. These 10 are my top picks. https://www.pcmag.com/explainers/10-future-windows-11-features-you-can-try-today?

ICE Orders an End to Vehicle Stops After Deadly Shootings by Federal Agents Internal orders handed down by leaders at U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement instructed officers in the field to stop making vehicle stops, according to five ICE officials around the country. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/14/ice-order-vehicle-stops-killings-shootings/? Intel Pick Jay Clayton Won’t Tell Congress Whether Trump Ordered Subpoenas of NYT Journalists At his confirmation hearing to serve as the nation’s top intelligence officer, Jay Clayton dodged questions about whether the White House ordered him to send subpoenas to New York Times journalists as part of an FBI investigation into alleged leaks of classified information. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/15/jay-clayton-confirmation-hearing-journalist-subpoenas/? ps:Of course he won't, he doesn't want to lie! Not sure why all the others have!!!!! Trump’s Sanctions Against the ICC Are Unconstitutional, Rights Groups Say Two pro-Palestine groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday that takes aim at U.S. sanctions against international human rights groups linked to efforts to hold Israel accountable for war crimes. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/15/trump-sanctions-international-criminal-court/? Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Wants to Save Crypto — But Trump Windfall Is a Political Obstacle Donald Trump is cleaning up on crypto, recently disclosing a $1.4 billion windfall. Yet cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have, after a year of flying high in the wake of Trump’s election, plummeted. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/13/gillibrand-crypto-trump-profit-clarity-act/? Democrats Are Desperate to Flip an Arizona House Seat. They’re Rallying Around a Former Republican. As the Democratic Party establishment consolidates around a former Republican they hope can flip a key Arizona congressional seat, super PACs are spreading their resources across candidates in the district’s upcoming Democratic primary — and three of the top spenders have ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/15/arizona-democrats-republicans-aipac-house-race/? How ICE Arrests Went Quiet — and Got Even More Deadly For the second time in a week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have shot a man dead. Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old father from Colombia, was driving slowly in Biddeford, Maine, when an agent shot into his vehicle. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/14/ice-shootings-maine-houston/? Harlan Crow Maxed Out Campaign Donations to John Fetterman Billionaire Republican megadonor Harlan R. Crow gave the maximum allowed contribution to the campaign for Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., according to a new filing with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/15/harlan-crow-john-fetterman-donation/? Iran Claims to Kill 3 U.S. Service Members in Kuwait After Iran claimed to have killed three U.S. personnel in Kuwait over the weekend, the Pentagon’s official toll of injuries and deaths in the war quietly climbed on Monday. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/13/iran-us-death-toll-casualties-kuwait/? Trump’s Intel Pick Played Key Role in NYT Subpoenas — But Some Democrats Still On the Fence Progressive groups are demanding that Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence oppose Jay Clayton’s nomination as director of national intelligence, pointing to his role in an attempt to intimidate the New York Times over critical reporting on the Trump administration. https://theintercept.com/2026/07/14/jay-clayton-nyt-subpoenas-national-intelligence/?

Pending federal hemp ban already hurting Florida businesses On Saturday, St. Petersburg retailer Herban Flow hosted its third High and Dry Festival, which featured dozens of brands showcasing THC-infused drinks, plus adaptogens, nootropics, and alcohol-free libations. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/07/15/pending-federal-hemp-ban-already-hurting-florida-businesses/? Legal powerhouse John Morgan wades into OpenAI battle over FSU shooting One of the nation’s most powerful law firms is wading into the war against OpenAI, representing two students claiming ChatGPT’s negligence may have caused their wounds in a shooting rampage at Florida State University last spring. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/07/15/legal-powerhouse-john-morgan-wades-into-openai-battle-over-fsu-shooting/? Florida governor’s betrayal of clean water promise reaches peak with biosolids veto Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been a huge fan of Bugs Bunny cartoons. I just love it when he does something outrageous and then turns to the camera and says, “Ain’t I a stinker?” It’s hilarious! https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/07/16/florida-governors-betrayal-of-clean-water-promise-reaches-peak-with-biosolids-veto/?