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THIS DAY IN HISTORY July 26 1775 U.S. postal system established The U.S. postal system is established by the Second Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster general. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT African History 1847 Liberian independence proclaimed 1956 Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal Ancient Americas 1533 Pizarro executes last Inca emperor Arts & Entertainment 1943 Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger is born 1975 Van McCoy’s “The Hustle” is the #1 song in America Black History 1948 President Truman ends segregation in the military Civil War 1863 Confederate leader John Hunt Morgan is captured Cold War 1947 President Truman signs the National Security Act Crime 1984 Infamous serial killer Ed Gein dies 1908 FBI founded European History 1945 Winston Churchill resigns First Ladies 1797 John Quincy Adams marries Louisa Johnson, first foreign-born first lady Inventions & Science 1998 Three race fans killed at Michigan Speedway U.S. Government and Politics 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) signed into law World War II 1943 Hitler discusses plans to prevent Italy’s imminent defection 1941 United States freezes Japanese assets

The Fab Four The Beatles were a 20th-century British band credited with innovating the sound of popular music and, in the process, helping to legitimize rock 'n' roll as an art form. > How the Beatles became the most influential band on Earth. (More, w/podcast) > Explore Abbey Road Studios, the site of the first ever stereo recordings and home to most of the Beatles' songs. (More) The intense fandom for the band, called Beatlemania, began in the United Kingdom in 1963 but did not initially translate into success in the United States. In fact, the band's American label rejected the band's first two singles. Eventually, the band gained traction and then exploded after a 1964 appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show." > Check out a list of the best Beatles songs. (More) > Watch the Beatles' performance on "The Ed Sullivan Show." (More, w/video) > The group was not an immediate success in the United States. (More) Although the band's recording career spanned a little over seven years, they released an astounding 13 LPs, averaging two a year. Among them were 1965's "Rubber Soul," 1966's "Revolver," and 1967's "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," records that were cohesive, fully realized artistic statements, a concept that was still novel for the time. > The band stopped touring in 1966, citing frustration with the era's limited sound systems. (More) > The Beatles sued technology company Apple in 1978 to defend naming rights to their record label, Apple Corps. (More, w/video) Discover more: > The Beatles tried to get the rights to make a "Lord of the Rings" film starring the band members as Gollum, Frodo, Gandalf, and Samwise. (More) > "Tomorrow Never Knows," the final track from 1966's "Revolver," used innovative recording methods to redefine the sound of popular music. (More, w/video) > Explore all 58 famous figures portrayed on the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album cover. (More)

Wisconsin's capital city cancels signature events, grapples with fallout from police shooting A police shooting in Wisconsin’s progressive capital city this week put the spotlight on persistent and deep racial divisions, prompting cancellations and other changes to popular summertime events as protesters said they were determined to continue public pressure for change in Madison. Read More.

Talarico is trying to win back Hispanics along the Texas border who swung toward the GOP The black campaign bus with “Talarico for Texas” across its side came to a steaming stop at Memo’s Restaurant along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bibi Valdez’s eyes lit up. She marched in heels over to the bus, phone camera trained on its door, chatting about the locals whose political leanings shifted two years ago. Read More.

Intern arrested in Belgium on suspicion of spying inside NATO military headquarters A Canadian woman was arrested and accused of espionage while working as an intern in the operational headquarters of the NATO military alliance, Belgian authorities said Saturday. Read More.

Heat dome expands across the central United States, creating dangerous conditions for millions Temperatures hit sweltering highs across much of the central United States on Saturday as forecasters warned that dangerously hot weather from Dallas to North Dakota would push into next week, with roughly 80 million people facing heat advisories. Read More.

Annual mud festival opens in South Korea's coastal city of Boryeong, in photos Tourists played and frolicked during the opening of the annual messy-but-fun Boryeong Mud Festival in South Korea. Read More.

🍣 1 fun thing: New stadium treat Photos: Levy The Washington Commanders are tapping into one of this year's buzziest food trends with sushi push pops, Axios D.C.'s Anna Spiegel writes. 😋 How it works: Think Push-Up ice cream from the '90s — except it's stuffed with sushi instead of sugar. A tube of soy sauce doubles as the stick, moving the roll up as you eat and seasoning each bite. Northwest Stadium's pops feature a Maryland blue crab roll with avocado, flying fish roe and "fiery corn puffs," all tucked into a custom Commanders-branded tube. 🥓 Zoom out: Levy, the stadium vendor behind the sushi push pops, is making waves with viral concessions around the country, from charcuterie cones to gold-covered bacon.

💰 Trump's tariff déjà vu President Trump has revived a provision from one of former President Herbert Hoover's most infamous policies: the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. Why it matters: Smoot was long thought to be moot — widely considered a failure and, possibly, an exacerbating factor in the Great Depression, Axios' Emily Peck writes. Trump has repeatedly said that he doesn't want to be associated with Hoover, who presided over the country during that economic collapse and has forever been associated with it. Earlier this year, he told Axios' Marc Caputo: "I have one primary wish as president, in terms of people: I never want to be the late, great Herbert Hoover." Keep reading.

🩺 Measles hotspots Data: CDC. Map: Sara Wise/Axios Seven states account for the majority of measles cases in the United States, Axios' Herb Scribner reports. Why it matters: The U.S. measles case count has officially shattered last year's record — hitting levels unseen in more than three decades, according to new CDC data. ⚠️ As of late July, the CDC had recorded 2,318 cases for the year. The vast majority of those sickened are under 20 years old and are either unvaccinated or their status is unknown. There have been no recorded deaths. By the numbers: South Carolina has reported 670 cases, while Utah has reported 522 cases. Together, they account for half of the cases. South Carolina, Utah, Texas, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania and Arizona represent 84% of the total. 23 states — plus D.C. — have seen three or fewer cases, per the CDC. Go deeper.

🤖 Inside a data center Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Amy Harder/Axios and Jason Henry/Bloomberg, Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images Axios national energy correspondent Amy Harder got a rare look inside a data center in Northern Virginia — known as "data center alley" — to see how AI is really made. Here's what she saw: ASHBURN, Va. — AI feels invisible. It isn't. It's racks of servers, cables, cooling systems and enormous amounts of electricity — and sometimes water. Digital Realty, one of the world's largest data center operators, opened its innovation lab last September to test new technologies and give customers, lawmakers and journalists a behind-the-scenes look at modern data centers. 🔎 Inside the room: I was immediately hit with what I can only describe as "demented white noise," Amy writes. The sound comes from fans cooling racks of AI chips that generate enormous amounts of heat. It felt like standing inside one giant computer. Even beneath my feet, a glass floor revealed pipes and other infrastructure helping keep the servers cool. ⚡ The most notable parts of a data center are also the most controversial: the infrastructure needed to power and cool AI. Otherwise, from the outside, data centers just look like massive, windowless warehouses. Multiple electricity substations are visible, along with whatever cooling technology is used, which includes either huge water-filled cooling towers or rows of dozens of industrial air conditioners that require large amounts of power. Read on.

👀 Anthropic's new drop Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Anthropic's newest release — Claude Opus 5 — is designed to handle many tasks almost as well as its most powerful model, Fable, at half the price, the company said. Why it matters: Opus 5 is Anthropic's fourth Claude 5 model release in less than two months, underscoring how AI deployment has shifted from blockbuster launches to rapid enhancements in capability, cost and speed, Axios' Madison Mills writes. Zoom in: Anthropic is positioning Opus 5 as its cheaper, everyday model for enterprises, knowledge workers and developers. Its launch comes as Chinese models are rivaling U.S. counterparts in sophistication while beating them on price. Read the announcement ...

✈️ Iranian threat prompted Air Force One swap President Trump abruptly switched aircraft when leaving Turkey this month after what officials judged to be a credible threat that Iranian proxy forces were targeting him and Air Force One, the N.Y. Times reports (gift link). After the U.S. government picked up on the threat, the Secret Service urged Trump to switch to the traditional presidential plane from the new Qatari-gifted Air Force One, per The Times. Following criticism from a federal judge for sloppy legal work, the Justice Department on Thursday withdrew subpoenas attempting to compel three Times reporters to testify about their sources on the plane swap. Go deeper: "Inside the Rushed Effort to Get Trump His New Air Force One," by the N.Y. Times' Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Maggie Haberman (gift link).

AI in the family Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Stock: Getty Images AI's impact isn't just at work. It's also at home, where chatbots are helping with dinner and bedtime, learning routines, overhearing arguments ... and never clocking out, Axios' Natalie Daher reports. Why it matters: The tech is evolving from an on-demand assistant into an always-on presence that increasingly acts like a member of the family. 🗣️ The New Yorker recently profiled an Ohio mother who tucks Alexa speakers into her bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and office and converses with them throughout the day, getting everything from reminders on when to leave for school pickup to interpretations of her dreams. 🛒 The Cut profiled Jesse Genet — a former startup CEO and a mom to a blended family of seven kids — whose expanding staff of AI agents shops for groceries, helps run her children's homeschooling schedule and handles legal and financial paperwork. 🧑‍🍼 81% of parents have used AI to help with parenting tasks, according to a Lurie Children's Hospital survey. This new reality goes well beyond the smart speaker wave of a decade ago. Earlier systems were often reactive and needed a command. The next generation of domestic AI can remember conversations, infer household patterns and adapt to individual family members. 👓 What we're watching: Last week, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI's first hardware device will be a screen-free, mobile smart speaker built to be a "humanlike AI companion that lives in the home."

DACA recipients did everything right, yet 14 years later they are more vulnerable than ever As the 14th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program passes, recipients’ futures are deeply uncertain. Once lauded by scholars as “the most successful policy of immigrant integration,” many recipients are now abruptly losing gains they experienced with DACA, raising alarm about the possibility of downward mobility. https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/daca-recipients-did-everything-right-yet-14-years-later-they-are-more-vulnerable-ever?

Surgeon General suggests high measles counts could be tied to abortion opposition Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo suggested Friday that opposition to abortion could have helped fuel a measles outbreak in Florida since many cases are tied to a private Roman Catholic college. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/07/24/surgeon-general-suggests-high-measles-counts-could-be-tied-to-abortion-opposition/? Fishback hearing: Threats, insults, and admission of D.C. voting, property During a Leon County hearing to decide whether gubernatorial candidate James Fishback should be booted from the ballot, Fishback threatened to imprison the lieutenant governor’s senior adviser, one of his supporters challenged the staffer to a courthouse fight, and Fishback acknowledged voting and buying a home in Washington, D.C. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/07/21/fishback-hearing-threats-insults-and-admission-of-d-c-voting-property/? Fewer Florida residents are receiving federal food benefits The number of Florida residents who receive federal food assistance dropped by 23% during the past year, state data published this month show. https://floridaphoenix.com/2026/07/23/fewer-florida-residents-are-receiving-federal-food-benefits/?

Trump Goons Make Bombshell Admission About Enemies List A court filing reveals the true motivations behind billions of dollars in grant cuts. Trump administration officials admitted in court that they canceled hundreds of federal grants simply because they benefited states Kamala Harris won in 2024.That stunning acknowledgment, which contradicts what the administration said last fall when canceling upwards of $7.5 billion in funds, came in court documents this month, The New York Times reported. Several grant awardees had sued over the cancellations, and as a result, the Trump administration’s weaponization of all sorts of aid is now coming into fuller view. Last year, the Energy Department presented the White House Budget Office with a list of more than 600 Biden-era grants in blue and red states that it said should be canceled. But in October, the budget office, under 50-year-old Director Russ Vought, canceled 284 of those grants. Of them, 283 were in blue states. “With one exception, the 284 terminated grants had a recipient location and/or at least one place of performance in a state that awarded its electoral votes to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and has two Democratic-caucusing senators,” an Energy Department lawyer wrote in a July 15 filing. None of the grants were canceled “based on any programmatic, statutory, cost-reduction or performance-based factor,” the lawyer added. Rather, it was purely political. “DOE accepts that the inclusion of grants in the October notice tranche was based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state, i.e., whether the recipient’s location and/or place of performance was in a Blue State or a non-Blue State,” the lawyer admitted. The Times reports that axed projects included electrical grid upgrades in California, as well as clean-burning hydrogen fuel hubs in the Golden State, where Gov. Gavin Newsom is a vocal Trump foe. Newsom, 58, responded Friday on X to the news. “The corrupt Trump administration has just admitted to withholding taxpayer dollars from states based on how they voted,” he wrote. “Last I checked we were a democracy, not a dictatorship. Where the hell is Congress?” Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, a ranking member on the GOP-led Senate appropriations committee, and Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who sits on the House’s top energy appropriations panel, issued a statement calling the cuts “outright un-American.” “This administration has now admitted in court what has long been obvious: It terminated nearly 300 cost-cutting energy projects for no reason other than the fact that the states they were in did not vote for the president in the 2024 election. This is an astounding admission that the president and his team corruptly abused their power to kill good jobs and punish hard-working families because of their political views,” they said. The pair also criticized Energy Secretary Chris Wright, 61, who said at a House hearing in June that “no decisions were made on politics.” Accusations to the contrary, he insisted then, were “b------t.” “Secretary Wright swore up and down for months that these project terminations had absolutely nothing to do with politics, and now his lawyers are declaring that, in fact, politics was the only consideration,” the lawmakers said in their statement. “Weaponizing the Federal government like this is outright un-American, and it’s hardworking families already struggling with sky-high costs who are suffering the consequences of this corrupt abuse of power.” Energy Department spokesperson Ben Dietderich told the Times in response to the filing, “There is no contradiction, and any suggestion of a contradiction is a misrepresentation of the court filing.” The Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast, nor did the White House. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-goons-make-bombshell-admission-about-enemies-list/? ps:Pathetic!!!!!

‘No time to waste’: Greece bids for Mount Olympus to be included on Unesco list of world heritage sites More than four decades have elapsed since Evangelos Geroliolios made his first ascent to the home of the ancient gods. At the top of Mount Olympus, on the rocky peak of Greece’s highest mountain, he felt unalloyed awe. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/25/no-time-to-waste-greece-bids-for-mount-olympus-to-be-included-on-unesco-list-of-world-heritage-sites?

Reclaiming stolen childhoods: swimming classes resume in Gaza after three years of war Swimming classes have started again in Gaza after three years of war, with hundreds of children learning to float, doggy paddle and take their first strokes in five makeshift sea pools built from sandbags and rubble. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/25/swimming-classes-resume-gaza-after-three-years-war? Iran-backed Houthis claim missile attack on Saudi Arabia as regional tensions escalate Saudi air defences intercept ballistic missiles as Iran reports first night without US strikes in two weeks https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/25/houthis-vow-retaliate-saudi-strikes-yemen-iran-war? Photos show the aftermath of settler violence in the West Bank and strikes in Gaza Israel's military pressed on with operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank as civilians grappled with the consequences of the conflict. In the West Bank, a deadly confrontation in the village of Tell left four Palestinians and one Israeli dead. In Gaza, Israeli strikes continued and residents mourned those killed as the humanitarian crisis persisted despite the fragile ceasefire. ___ This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors. Read More.

Insults, potshots and quip about a third term: Trump’s rambling gala address President mocks opponents and journalists in mostly lighthearted speech at White House correspondents’ dinner https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/24/white-house-correspondents-dinner-trump-washington? Triggered Trump Launches Vile Attack on Kaitlan Collins Minutes into his one-hour speech, the 80-year-old president began mocking the CNN star. President Donald Trump met an awkward silence when he used a speech that was supposed to celebrate press freedom to attack a female reporter and liken her to a transgender influencer.Appearing at the redo of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Friday, Trump hit out at CNN star Kaitlan Collins after she won an award for her coverage of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the Oval Office. This year’s dinner was the first Trump had attended since 2015, after more than a decade of boycotts. But about 10 minutes into his speech, the 80-year-old president mocked Collins, telling the audience: “I want to personally congratulate CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on receiving her award. It was all about me. It was a fake, she shouldn’t get the award, it was a fake. But I didn’t mind. I said, ‘Kaitlan, congratulations.’ But it was fake, there’s no question about it. “But she’s a young, attractive woman,” Trump added, as some people in the audience grimaced. “She never smiles. I said, ‘Kaitlan do you ever smile? Smile!’ You have a nice position; you’re at CNN fake news. You should be a happy person. So smile, Kaitlan! Just smile.” Trump then went on to suggest Collins looked like transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who prompted a Bud Light backlash a few years ago when she appeared in an ad for the popular beer. “I thought Kaitlan had really made it big with a major new sponsorship,” Trump said. “But then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can, it was Dylan Mulvaney.” The dinner took place three months after the original event was derailed in April by a gunman who breached security in a bid to assassinate the president. Trump aides and Cabinet secretaries attended, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. However, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were absent due to scheduling conflicts, according to the White House. The dinner has long occupied a peculiar place in Washington: part celebration of the First Amendment, part networking event, and part roast. The president kicked things off by declaring that the roast he had planned to give in April would have been even more of “a doozy” and a “ripping” of the media. But over the course of about an hour, he nonetheless took aim at everyone from CNN’s Jake Tapper (“it only took him one year to break the story that Joe Biden might have suffered from cognitive decline”), commentator Don Lemon (“he has the lowest ratings and the lowest IQ”), and MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell (“I never thought he had any talent”). The president’s jokes often fell flat, with many of the 700 guests in the room checking their phones as he launched his assaults. One of his better received gags involved calls for fixed term limits in Congress—something that several Republicans have also called for in the wake of Senator Mitch McConnell’s prolonged absence. “All joking aside, I do think we need term limits in Congress,” he said, regaling a story a senator had told him about his partner. “The other day, a senator I knew got a text… ‘When you get home, I want to have you immediately come up the stairs and make love to me.’ And he said, ‘I can’t do both!” Earlier in the night, the president was forced to endure a video roasting him about press freedom and America being a country of “no kings.” Things became even more awkward when The Wall Street Journal was celebrated for reporting on a lewd letter he allegedly sent to notorious child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Trump had filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the publication, but it was dismissed by a federal judge in April for failing to meet the legal “actual malice” standard required for public figures. Photographer Andrew Harnik was also awarded for his iconic photo featuring Trump looking lost and confused in the Oval Office after a man collapsed behind him during an event last November. The image immediately sparked ongoing speculation about the president’s health. Handing out the award, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer described it as a “truly striking image of contrast, skillfully captured in a chaotic moment.” Trump was seen repeatedly closing his eyes for extended periods of time as scholarships and awards were handed out. He ended his remarks on a more gracious note, giving the press a compliment of sorts as he donned a Trump 2028 cap and suggested he would run for a third term. “I just want to say… I have tremendous respect for the people in this room,” he told the crowd. “Sometimes I don’t feel you treat me fair, or maybe you do. I don’t know… Your profession is amazing and I want to thank you for having me.” A CNN spokesperson said in a statement: “Kaitlan Collins is an exceptional, trusted journalist being honored tonight for her depth of knowledge and the context she provides to audiences all over the world... We stand by her to the fullest extent.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/triggered-trump-launches-vile-attack-on-kaitlan-collins/? 🍽️ Correspondents' dinner 2.0 President Trump used his speech at last night's White House Correspondents' Association dinner redo to condemn the political violence that interrupted the annual event — and in the next breath attack and insult the gathered press. "In America we do not yield to political violence," Trump told the black-tie crowd, referring to the gunman who opened fire outside the ballroom 90 nights earlier at the original dinner. "In this country we believe in freedom of speech, we settle our differences not with bullets but with open and vigorous debate, and no deranged loser with a gun will ever change that. We can't let that ever happen." The dinner was moved from the traditional location at the Washington Hilton to the Waldorf Astoria, formerly the Trump International Hotel. As is traditional, the presidential remarks mixed seriousness with humor, Axios' Donica Phifer writes. "Everyone is looking really good tonight, and I know it's not easy finding shoes to match your bulletproof vest," Trump said. "Many people would rather die than look 20 pounds heavier, you know that, right? They put one on me. I said, 'Are you sure? I'm not wearing this.'" "Just like my presidency, the second time is always better," the president quipped. "And the third time will be better yet. ... I'm only kidding." At the end, he donned a red "Trump 2028" cap and delivered the "scoop" that he was running again, to chuckles and light applause. 📺 Trump attacked prominent reporters by name, going after CNN's Kaitlan Collins (demanding she smile more) and Jake Tapper (he called him "Fake Tapper"). CNN released a statement during Trump's speech defending its reporters, writing in part: "Honest, accurate journalism may sometimes irritate politicians, but our right to report and present that reporting to the public without government interference is fully protected by the U.S. Constitution." Trump cracked a joke about a "once-feared and powerful regime" being toppled and now being run by "a gay dictator facing internal divisions" — adding "I for one wish Bari Weiss all the best at CBS News." 💭 Thought bubble from Axios media correspondent Sara Fischer: Trump's repeated praise of Paramount chair David Ellison may complicate life for the company, which faces an antitrust lawsuit from a dozen Democratic state attorneys general as it tries to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. ps:What a petty little man!!

Measuring Time Through Trees Most people know that you can count a tree’s rings to determine its age. Many also know that the rings indicate the climate in any one of the years of the tree’s life: a larger ring indicates a wet year while smaller rings indicate dryness. A tree’s rings form a pattern, kind of like a bar code, that scientists can “read,” allowing them to: 1) know when a tree grew and was cut; and 2) build unbroken chronologies by matching sequences of rings from different trees from the same region through time. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/measuring-time-through-trees/?

I had measles, as did all my classmates and neighborhood friends. Not a big deal. 1 in every 1000 children gets sicker. Now that's a big deal.

July 25, 2026 Good morning. What does summer taste like? The answer is something specific, personal, instantly familiar. María Jesús Contreras Flavor profile By Melissa Kirsch It’s a little early in the summer to luck into corn as perfect as I did last weekend: kernels plump and sweet, that satisfying snap when you bite in. Corn is one of those foods so intrinsically tied up with summer, along with tomatoes, strawberries and stone fruits (all to be extra carefully washed in this unprecedented cyclospora surge, of course.) Summer’s flavor profile begins to form in us early: the foods we ate as children, inseparable from our sun-bleached memories of ourselves in our dated outfits with our dated haircuts. Summer to me tastes like corn and tomatoes and peaches, but also like the flat, grainy surface of the little wooden spoon that came packaged with the individual cups of ice cream they served at camp. Watermelon, Hi-C fruit punch and Cracker Jacks. One summer, just out of college, some friends set up a kettle grill on their rooftop and we got busy putting together a cookout, our first as actual adults. “We should make hot dogs!” someone suggested. That sounded right. “We should have barbecued chicken!” Naturally. “We should make M.M.B.s!” I declared, to bewildered stares. This was one of those moments that occur often when you’re young, when you realize your experience of the world is narrow, that what was standard lingo in your family is not legible to anyone else. We’d called burgers made on the grill M.M.B.s in my family for so long that I’d nearly forgotten what the initialism stood for. “Michael’s Marvelous Burgers” were named for and by my father, the resident grill master. Summer, to me, tasted like M.M.B.s: sculpted patties, salted, peppered and latticed to perfection on the back patio. “It’s Not Summer Until You’ve Had a Proper Shandy,” a headline in The Times read last week. The shandy, the beer-and-lemonade mix, is “the entry-level drink, an intro to your first proper pint” in Britain, according to the restaurateur Annie Shi. Another headline: “Summer Tastes Like Mango (And Vice Versa)” rounded up treats from across New York including Thai sticky rice and frozen Mexican nieves. We could each fill out our own “Summer Tastes Like …” headline. The taste of the season is specific, personal, instantly familiar. That not-altogether-unpleasant sensation of a grain or two of sand in your beach sandwich, the charred edge of a campfire marshmallow. I asked my dad about M.M.B.s recently: Was the recipe a closely guarded secret, as I remembered? Wasn’t there an egg thrown in with the ground chuck? Certainly this mainstay of my summer palate was a Kirsch family heirloom. “It wasn’t that secret, honey,” he told me. “We tried to make it a big deal because it wasn’t a big deal,” he said. “We tried to embellish it, dress it up.” (He didn’t remember the recipe specifically, but he thinks that, yes, there may have been an egg, and perhaps a bit of breadcrumb, for binding.) These days, summer tastes to my dad like grilled chicken breast sandwiches with strips of zucchini. My friend Franny says it’s warm tomatoes off the vine with Duke’s mayonnaise, hot Gatorade from the cup holder in the car. For my colleague Minju, hot Korean soups with wilted kimchi she grew up eating. What does summer taste like? It’s a sort of silly question, but the answer comes from someplace deep. Now I just have to hunt down corn as good as last weekend’s. THE LATEST NEWS War in Iran President Trump met with advisers to discuss a major escalation in Iran. “I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before,” he said before the meeting. U.S. intelligence officials believe that Iran’s current supreme leader is far more interested in building a nuclear weapon than his predecessor. Air Force One President Trump leaving the new Air Force One this month. Doug Mills/The New York Times Trump’s rush to take delivery of his new Qatari-donated Air Force One jet led to ballooning costs and safety trade-offs, a Times investigation found. Times Exclusive: A credible threat from Iranian proxies is what prompted Trump to switch planes when leaving Turkey earlier this month. Health A patient vaccinated for measles in Texas last March. Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images The U.S. has recorded more measles cases in 2026 than any other year since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000. (Related: Biotech companies see declining vaccination rates as an opportunity to sell new measles drugs.) The cyclosporiasis outbreak associated with iceberg lettuce has expanded to four more states, the C.D.C. said, for a total of nine. So far at least 1,947 people have become ill, and 98 have been hospitalized. F.D.A. advisers, including several who work for companies that sell peptides, are considering whether to broaden access to them. Yesterday, they rejected adding emideltide, a sleep inducer, to a list approved for routine production. Here’s what scientific research shows about peptides. More on Politics Trump hurled insults at a postponed White House correspondents’ dinner last night. “Is this supposed to be fun?” he asked. Federal officials acknowledged that they canceled billions of dollars in grants to states “based solely” on the fact that Trump did not win them in 2024 . Trump ordered that new signs be placed outside a Smithsonian museum to warn that its depiction of U.S. history is “inaccurate.” After Senator Lindsey Graham died this month, Trump initially wanted a little-known House member to replace him. Read how the president decided to back Graham’s sister instead. Around the World Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in Spain and France due to wildfires. A new $4.5 billion international bridge between Ontario and Detroit opened in “underwhelming” fashion, after Trump imposed new tariffs against Canada. After the World Cup final, people criticized Argentina for its players’ aggressive behavior and racist chants. Some Argentines are trying to recover their image. Business Paramount agreed to delay its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery while a judge considers a lawsuit aimed at blocking the deal. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond jumped to its highest level of Trump’s second term. The rate is an important economic barometer, and its rise will likely make the cost of mortgages and corporate borrowing higher. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV Matt Damon as Odysseus. Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures In both “The Odyssey” and “Oppenheimer” — very different films — the director Christopher Nolan asks us to consider how human bonds span epochs and civilizations, our critic writes. Zendaya is facing criticism for wearing ancient Iranian jewelry to an “Odyssey” event. Kevin Sussman started as a guest star on the hit sitcom “Big Bang Theory.” Now he has his own zany spinoff, A new biopic of Rupert Murdoch will compete for the highest prize at this year’s Venice Film Festival. In “72 Hours,” Kevin Hart plays an ad executive who tags along on a bachelor party weekend. Our critic found the humor broad and crude and genuinely funny. Music Kenneth Blume, the hitmaker formerly known as Kenny Beats, helped record breakthrough albums for Geese and Vince Staples. On a new solo project, he turns inward. The singer Chris Brown pleaded guilty to threatening violence in a London nightclub three years ago, when he was accused of hitting a music producer with a tequila bottle. More Culture A new museum in London reveals how British intelligence secretly wiretapped Nazi commanders in a stately mansion — and how a team of Jewish refugees translated their messages. August Wilson’s classic play “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” wouldn’t exist without a 1978 photomontage by Romare Bearden. Here’s how the two are intertwined. Matthew Taylor, an artist and political strategist, has quietly rubber-stamped many of Trump’s efforts to transform Washington. He’s a multifaceted guy: a Marcel Duchamp devotee who also filmed documentaries for Steve Bannon and Kash Patel. Click the video to learn more about him. The New York Times Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. RECIPE OF THE WEEK Armando Rafael for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Roasted zucchini pasta salad Do you know what ever summer gathering needs? A really good pasta salad, preferably one with enough vegetables to feel salad-y and light. And it should the kind of thing you can make in advance, at the ready for a picnic or potluck. Kay Chun’s roasted zucchini version checks all the boxes. It’s got vegetables galore, along with golden raisins for sweetness and sunflower seeds for crunch. You can toss with the tahini dressing a few hours ahead. It even gets better as it sits. REAL ESTATE James Estrin/The New York Times The Hunt: After growing up with both a front porch and a back deck, this Queens resident was tired of renting and ready for her own slice of the outdoors. What did she find? Play our game. What you get for $2.5 million: An adobe home in Santa Fe, N.M.; a farmhouse in New Gloucester, Maine; and a former coach house with a tower in Lake Forest, Ill. Pick your favorite. Take the bet: A Chicago suburb raffled off the opportunity for local residents to buy houses below market rate. LIVING Schwartz and Architecture designed this tiny home. Bruce Damonte Almost impossible: An architect and his client overcame regulatory hurdles to build a house that hovers over the water in Sonoma County, Calif. Embrace minimalism: See how a designer creates simplicity in his own home. Breathe easier: Wildfire smoke can contaminate the air inside a home, but there are steps you can take to make yours safer. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER You might be applying sunscreen wrong How much do you need? How often should you reapply? The short answer: about two tablespoons, every two hours. For stick sunscreen, that’s four passes back and forth. For sprays, until your skin glistens. Make sure you rub it in fully — yes, even for sticks and sprays, and even if the directions say otherwise. As for what to buy? The best sunscreen is the one you’ll apply liberally and often. Here are some of our favorites. — Rose Maura Lorre KING JAMES Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Imagn Images, via Reuters Connect LeBron James is signing with the Philadelphia 76ers. James is 41 years old and the N.B.A.’s all-time leading scorer; this will be his 24th season, extending what is already the longest career in the league’s history. He has agreed to join the team on a two-year, $8 million contract. “I believe I can help make the Philadelphia 76ers a championship team,” he said, “and I am so excited to energize a new fan base and start this incredible journey one last time.” How did the Sixers hook him? NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was evoking. 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. — Melissa 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

THIS DAY IN HISTORY July 25 1978 World’s first “test tube” baby born On July 25, 1978, Louise Joy Brown, the world’s first baby to be conceived via in-vitro fertilization (IVF) is born at Oldham and District General Hospital in Manchester, England, to parents Lesley and Peter Brown. The healthy baby was delivered shortly before midnight by caesarean section and weighed in at five pounds, 12 ounces. Before […] read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 19th Century 1853 California Rangers kill Joaquín Murrieta 1832 The first railroad accident 1950s 1956 Ocean liners collide off Nantucket Arts & Entertainment 1965 Dylan goes electric at the Newport Folk Festival 1897 Jack London sails for the Klondike gold rush 1985 Rock Hudson announces he has AIDS Cold War 1961 President Kennedy talks to Americans about the need for bomb shelters Crime 1878 Black Bart strikes again 1984 A 9 year old’s murder puts an innocent man in jail Early 20th Century U.S. 1941 Henry Ford writes fan letter to Mahatma Gandhi Natural Disasters & Environment 2000 Concorde jet crashes, killing everyone onboard Sports 1992 Opening of the XXV Olympiad in Barcelona U.S. States 1898 U.S. forces invade Puerto Rico Vietnam War 1969 The Nixon Doctrine is announced World War I 1917 Dancer and suspected spy Mata Hari sentenced to die World War II 1943 Benito Mussolini falls from power

India’s ‘Cockroach’ movement ends protests after education minister resigns NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s “Cockroach” movement called off its weeks of protests on Saturday, saying the government had accepted all of its demands after the country’s education minister resigned over alleged exam paper leaks and irregularities in the education system. https://apnews.com/article/india-cockroach-education-minister-56d69c289589f057c0e72cde0c3d75d3?