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A judge blocks Trump’s new bid to curb birthright citizenship, citing Supreme Court precedent U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman on Wednesday issued a preliminary injunction against an executive order that the administration said would target “birth tourism,” until a class-action lawsuit brought by immigrant families and advocacy groups is resolved. Read more. Why this matters: President Donald Trump has long wanted to end birthright citizenship, issuing a previous executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens. The Supreme Court struck down that attempt in June. “The Supreme Court has spoken: Children in the certified class are ‘citizens at birth,’” Boardman, appointed by President Joe Biden, wrote in the ruling. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Immigrant rights group seeks to block use of federal databases it says could purge legal voters FACT FOCUS: Texans listed as ‘suspense voters’ can still cast a ballot if they confirm their address Trump promises to campaign for Republicans and says they have a winning midterm message Here’s a look at ‘reach’ election races where Democrats hope to pull off House upsets Trump’s plan for a fence at Lafayette Park near White House gets review by federal panel Apple changes Lake Ontario name to ‘Lake America’ for US users of its Maps, following Trump’s order Kennedy Center disassembles Blue sculpture from its grounds Heads or tails? $1 coin with Trump’s face and gold finish goes on sale

Lawmakers ask Army to explain why it told a military unit to stop specializing in drone warfare The 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in Europe, had been building its own drones and practicing the kind of warfare that Ukraine has pioneered against Russia and that Iran has fought against the U.S. — warfare that has killed and wounded American troops. Read more. Why this matters: This comes as the world’s battlefields rapidly evolve and military tactics increasingly rely on uncrewed systems to fight. The bipartisan group of lawmakers expressed deep concerns in a letter shared with The Associated Press. They said ending the unit’s focus on drones would limit the military’s abilities to learn from allies, particularly the Ukrainian Armed Forces. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Driscoll offered no reason for his exit as Army secretary USS Lincoln crew hits the streets of Thai beach city after lengthy Middle East deployment Judge lacked power to overturn ex-soldier Bowe Bergdahl’s military conviction, appeals court rules Iran strikes Kuwait in retaliation for US bombardments

2 people killed and suspect is dead in downtown Minneapolis shooting The shooting Wednesday also left five others wounded, including two Minneapolis police officers. A sixth person, another officer, suffered other injuries. Read more. What to know: Authorities did not provide any details about the suspected shooter but said they were familiar with the person before the shooting. Video posted to social media showed police aiming rifles upward at an apartment tower near the Minneapolis Convention Center. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a post on social media that state officials were on the ground helping local law enforcement respond to the shooting. RELATED COVERAGE ➤ WATCH: Minneapolis mayor and police chief share information

September 3, 2026 By Sam Sifton Good morning. Gloria Steinem, the activist and journalist who personified the women’s movement, has died at 92. She challenged sexist assumptions, helping women expand their sense of self-worth and gain more equality in their lives. We have more on her life below. And The Times conducted a visual investigation into the attack this week on a wedding in southern Iran that killed at least five people and injured at least 67. American forces, we learned, dropped the bomb. The leader of those forces in Washington is Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense. I’m going to turn to my editor, Adam Kushner, for a look at Hegseth’s tenure. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Alex Kent/The New York Times Hegseth’s military By Adam B. Kushner I’m the editor of this newsletter. It’s been a weird summer for the Pentagon. Its leaders depleted much of the U.S. arsenal in a war with Iran. They’ve pushed out some of the most promising generals because the officers once said or did something that looks like “D.E.I.” They had to call home an aircraft carrier when the crew became demoralized about its much-longer-than-promised deployment. Then they punished a military newspaper that covered those sailors. This week, the Army’s civilian leader threw up his hands and quit. This is the military under Pete Hegseth, the aggressively MAGA secretary of defense — well, secretary of war, if Congress ever makes it official. Political appointees come and go from the Pentagon, and it’s their job to advance the president’s agenda. But reporting in The Times over the last year and a half shows how far Hegseth has gone to remake the agency in MAGA’s image. The armed forces today are not the ones you grew up with. Four Times reporters — Helene Cooper, John Ismay, Greg Jaffe and Eric Schmitt — have chronicled a chaotic transformation. What’s happened The changes fall into three categories. Ideology. President Trump campaigned against diversity efforts, and his defense secretary, a former Fox News host, has prosecuted that case with zeal. Hegseth has removed books from libraries and schools on military bases. Toni Morrison and James Baldwin are gone from classes at West Point, and sociology — a discipline that inherently studies identity — is no longer a major there. Officials told a geographer on the faculty that he couldn’t teach about the human causes of climate change. Hegseth has degrees from Princeton and Harvard, but he barred officers from graduate programs at Ivy League schools because they are “factories of anti-American resentment and military disdain.” Staffing. Hegseth says he wants to streamline the officer corps and make it more effective. But his cuts and his decision not to promote some 80 specific people — about 10 percent of the top officer corps — suggest his focus is elsewhere. More than half of the officers affected are Black or female. Some were apparently targeted for: writing a paper on why some Black officers choose logistics roles over combat; encouraging their troops to get the Covid vaccine; and serving in Afghanistan at the same time as the military’s withdrawal there. Now much of the department is rudderless, our reporters say. Transparency. Do you remember the first Gulf war? The generals were on TV constantly, wielding pointers and maps to explain the day’s maneuvers. After Sept. 11, similar briefings came daily. Today, we rarely hear from the brass, even though the United States is at war. The last Pentagon press conference was in May. Hegseth says reporters cover American casualties to “make the president look bad.” (The Times has sued the administration for restricting our journalists’ reporting on the agency.) Officials also don’t answer questions from Congress about the firing of officers or the endgame in Iran. “They seem to think that any effort to engage the public endangers America,” Greg told me. What’s at stake Some of this is just about vibes. For generations, the Pentagon built a corps of leaders who acquired graduate degrees at top schools and spoke eloquently about global strategy. They were overwhelmingly white men, though other groups were steadily making headway. Whatever you think about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the people who led them often thought of themselves as humanists, students of history, warrior-poets. Hegseth seems to see this as weak and unfocused. He has said women don’t belong in combat and discharged trans service members. He did away with some rules of engagement and said the department’s priority was “lethality.” He closed an office that worked to prevent collateral damage against civilians. He offers testosterone to soldiers, insists that men shave their beards (even the ones grown for medical reasons) and appears in sweaty videos pumping iron with the troops. President Trump and Hegseth in Dover, Del., in July, attending the transfer of a service member killed in the Iran war. Kenny Holston/The New York Times But other changes may systemically weaken the armed forces, experts say. The targeted firings make it look as if some types of Americans are not welcome in the military, or at least not in its leadership. And the insistence on ideological conformity makes it harder to get unvarnished advice from experienced combatants. If you want to be promoted, you have to mouth the right views. We’ve already seen caution set in. Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says his job is not to tell the president whether an idea is good or bad but to present a range of options and their risks. That’s a departure. His predecessors, for instance, pleaded with President Biden not to withdraw from Afghanistan. Yet when the commander in chief made his call, they carried it out. This is the idea that underpins two centuries of military leadership: The generals can be trusted, their personal views notwithstanding, to follow orders. GLORIA STEINEM The New York Times Gloria Steinem, the feminist crusader, has died at 92. She helped usher in cultural transformations across virtually every facet of American life, from the boardroom to the courtroom to the bedroom. For more than half a century, she personified the women’s movement and became its most enduring symbol; “her tinted aviator glasses and curtain of streaked-blond hair parted in the center made her one of the most recognizable women in the world,” my colleague writes. Her death was announced in a post on social media, which did not give a cause. It said she had died peacefully at home, surrounded by loved ones. Read her obituary. MORNING READS In Brooklyn. José A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times We’ve made these links free for you. Barbecues: Younger Black Americans are finding creative ways to keep the traditional cookout alive. Robotaxis: Can driverless cars navigate London’s medieval streets? Jurassic soundscape: Scientists spent over a decade reconstructing the calls of ancient insects. Now, you can hear what the forest sounded like in the age of dinosaurs. Your pick: The most clicked story in The Morning yesterday was about a plan to kill nearly all the deer on Catalina Island. THE LATEST NEWS Elections The Department of Homeland Security has assigned hundreds of agents to identify noncitizens on voter rolls. There is no evidence of widespread fraud. The U.S. Postal Service has continued to develop a complex screening system for mail-in ballots before this year’s midterms, despite an ongoing court fight over its legality. Trump is headlining an unusual Republican pep rally before the elections. But congressional Republicans in the most competitive races are staying home to campaign instead. Politics Twenty-one states led by Democrats sued to block a Health and Human Services plan to end Medicaid funding for youth gender-transition treatment. The Trump administration imposed tariffs of up to 100 percent on foreign-made drones. It’s part of a long-running campaign to thwart the Chinese drone industry. A federal judge blocked Trump’s latest effort to limit birthright citizenship, ruling that the Supreme Court had already settled the issue. The White House is planning a $250,000 renovation of its basement bowling alley, the latest in a series of taxpayer-funded upgrades. The outdoor apparel company Patagonia joined environmental and Native American groups to sue Trump for trying to shrink Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. Other Big Stories In Chiapas, Mexico. Luis Antonio Rojas for The New York Times The U.S.-Mexico border reopened to cattle imports after a screwworm infestation. But the battle against a flesh-eating fly has only just begun. Jurors in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial are expected to return for a sixth day of deliberations today. A federal judge ruled that Google would not need to break up its advertising monopoly. IN ONE GRAPHIC The New York Times What caused last week’s devastating flood in the Himalayas? Experts now think the bedrock gave way below a glacier. Part of the mountainside had moved by more than a foot in the month before the catastrophe, and when it collapsed, it released enough debris to fill 70 football stadiums. That slurry flowed at 30 times the rate of Niagara Falls and exceeded 100 miles per hour as it raced downstream. The Times used satellite images to diagram the disaster. See what happened here. Get access to five locked games. Save 75% on your first year of a New York Times Games subscription. Get full access to Wordle, Spelling Bee, Crossplay, the Crossword and more. TODAY’S NUMBER Jake Osborne/Department of Conservation — New Zealand, via Agence France-Presse 325 — That is how many kakapos, a critically endangered parrot species, are in New Zealand now, after a mating frenzy this year delivered 90 new chicks. In 1995, there were just 51. Read about their surprising baby boom. THE CLIPPERS Kawhi Leonard Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press The N.B.A. imposed the largest punishment in its history on the Los Angeles Clippers and their owner, Steve Ballmer. A yearlong investigation determined that they circumvented the league’s salary-cap rules to help funnel millions to a star player, Kawhi Leonard. The Clippers will lose five first-round picks — selections in 2029, 2030, 2031, 2032 and 2033 — and will be fined $30 million, the league announced. Read more here. RECIPE OF THE DAY Rachel Vanni for The New York Times My pal Emily Weinstein, who runs NYT Cooking, has brought back The Weeknight 100, a bounty of easy dinner recipes well worth bookmarking for use over the next few months. I’ll start with this chile chicken and bean guisado, cinnamon-tinged and warmly spicy. LEANNE IS LISTENING Jared Soares for The New York Times “If you are a woman of a certain age and your algorithm is a deluge of pitches for magnesium,” Ginia Bellafante writes, “it is probably also full of Leanne Morgan.” The comedian has become a breakout star at 60, with a fan base that stretches from the churchgoing Southeast to the elite corridors of Hollywood. “It’s so rare, at this point, that someone delights me and makes me laugh so hard,” Judd Apatow said. Read about how she got here. More on culture For his latest feat of close reading, A.O. Scott takes on the first paragraph of Jonathan Franzen’s novel “The Corrections,” published 25 years ago this week. It’s revelatory — and really fun to read. Related: Our three staff book critics examine the book’s lasting mark. Just three works can help you understand the genius of Yayoi Kusama, the mesmerizing pop artist who died last month at 97. Look at them with us. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS Consider the new “it” bag, the LM1 tote from La Mama, only $1,650 (🤣!). T Magazine wrote about it. The pictures are great. Pace yourself, don’t race yourself, if you’re new to running. Sleep under a new comforter this fall. The picky somnologists at Wirecutter found the very best ones. GAMES Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were flippant and plaintiff. 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 News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Deputy Editorial Director: Lauren Jackson

Gloria Steinem, defining symbol of women’s movement and eloquent advocate for equality, dies at 92 https://apnews.com/article/gloria-steinem-dies-724836935f6547fda60f361c15238d14?

Storms raise flood risks across multiple states Tropical Depression Edouard dumped more than 20 inches of rain on parts of Texas, and dangerous flooding will persist today as the storm moves north. Downed trees and power lines have been reported across several counties, with tens of thousands of homes and businesses without electricity early today. Meanwhile, another round of storms is hitting the Northeast, raising fresh flooding concerns after weeks of wet weather. Severe weather alerts currently stretch across parts of the Midwest, Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic — including Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Baltimore and Washington, DC. + Read more: Southeastern Texas under rare high flood risk, rescues reported as Edouard dumps over 20 inches of rain + Video: Car submerged as Edouard creates flood emergency + Stay ahead: Get local insights from meteorologists and more in the CNN Weather app

Deadly shooting leaves Minneapolis shaken At least two people were killed and multiple others injured, including three police officers, after a shooter opened fire at a Minneapolis apartment building on Wednesday, officials said. The shooter is also dead, and a motive remains unknown. The incident comes as Americans are increasingly confronting mass shootings in everyday public spaces. It happened just 5 miles from Annunciation Catholic Church, where a gunman killed two children and wounded 27 others just a year ago. + Read more: Two dead, multiple injured in Minneapolis mass shooting + Separately: Two killed outside Tucson gay bar in ‘targeted attack’ on the LGBTQ community, police say

What do rising bond rates mean for you? A specialist works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on August 27. (Yuki Iwamura/AP) The US bond market is flashing warning signs — and you don’t have to own bonds for it to hit your wallet. As the US war with Iran intensifies, defense spending and the cost of oil, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel are rising. That energy spike is adding to inflation worries in a bond market already nervous about America’s $40 trillion debt. On Wednesday, a key Treasury yield that influences borrowing costs across the US climbed to its highest level in nearly three years. For everyday Americans, higher bond yields can make mortgages, car loans and other forms of borrowing more expensive. Mortgage rates have already climbed from around 6% before the war to nearly 7%, a seemingly small jump that can add hundreds of dollars to a monthly payment. And if inflation stays elevated, the Federal Reserve may consider raising interest rates, squeezing borrowers even further. + Video: What do rising bond rates mean for you? + Analysis: Inflation is a drug and Washington is high on it + Read more: US 10-year yield touches highest level since 2023 + Latest on the war in Iran

🎾 1 for the road: Influencer reckoning Fans take photos at the US Open last week. Photo: Manuela Davies/USTA via Getty Images The U.S. Open has long been a "see and be seen" destination for fashion, business and Hollywood. Now, a growing class of content creators is joining the crowd — and getting schooled in tennis etiquette in real time, Axios Communicators author Simon Hernandez-Arthur writes. One incident during Naomi Osaka's first-round match — where a group in a suite was taking photos with flash while Osaka was preparing to serve — prompted a public rebuke from the umpire. Axios' Kerry Flynn, who's attended the U.S. Open every year since 2015, notes the etiquette has never felt this bad. It's always been rowdier than other tennis tournaments, but the party atmosphere has bled more into actual play. 🤳 Zoom out: The incident comes as the United States Tennis Association leans further into the creator economy. It approved credentials for "close to 100" content creators this year — nearly double the 54 it credentialed when it launched the program in 2025. USTA media operations director Jeanmarie Daly told Front Office Sports the goal is to reach the "broadest possible spectrum" of audiences, recognizing that traditional media and creators reach people differently.

🏛️ Leadership power play fuels Dem infighting Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images House Democratic leaders are trying to flex some muscle this week after two members defected on a key procedural vote. It's stoking fury among members across the political spectrum, Axios' Andrew Solender writes. Why it matters: The blowup offers a preview of the chaos that party leaders could face in January if they take back the House majority. At the same time, an effort to give House Democratic leaders more tools to keep their members in line next year is falling flat among rank-and-file members. "It'll be dead by next week," predicted one senior House Democrat, speaking to Axios on the condition of anonymity to comment candidly on the maneuver. 🔭 Zoom in: Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) angered fellow Democrats on Tuesday by helping Republicans pass a rule, or procedural measure. Some members have suggested kicking both members off their committees, or at least removing Gluesenkamp Perez from the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Others have pitched a broader change to caucus rules requiring members to show up to key votes, stick with party leadership on rule votes and pay their dues to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Keep reading.

👀 Witkoff meets powerful UAE official Vessels sit near the Strait of Hormuz along the coast of Oman this week. Photo: Reuters White House envoy Steve Witkoff met last weekend with the national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates to discuss next steps on Iran, Axios' Barak Ravid writes. Witkoff met with Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan (TBZ) on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. Why it matters: The talks, which weren't announced by the White House and haven't been reported until now, took place amid the Trump administration's push to reopen the Strait of Hormuz while choking Iran economically. The UAE has been the key partner in the U.S.-led operation to reopen and guide oil tankers through the strait. Keep reading.

🧠 Brain implants fuel China rivalry Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Brain implants like those being developed by Elon Musk's Neuralink are becoming the latest friction point in the intensifying U.S.-China rivalry in the life sciences, Axios' Adriel Bettelheim writes. Why it matters: The devices are bringing new hope to patients with strokes, Parkinson's disease and other neurological conditions. And tech billionaires have fueled advances by pouring billions into biotech startups focused on linking the brain with computers. But a new national security analysis says U.S. development efforts are being overtaken by Beijing's full-court press around manufacturing, data and commercialization. The consequences could extend beyond health care, affecting U.S. military capabilities and the ability to train the next generation of AI models, according to the analysis. 🔬 Zoom in: Brain-computer interfaces are going mainstream. Companies like Neuralink, Precision Neuroscience, Paradromics and Synchron are testing new applications, like helping to restore communication for people who have lost the ability to speak. Rapid advances in artificial intelligence are reducing the time it takes to calibrate a device to a patient's brain signals and use them for functions like controlling a prosthetic part. And China leveled up the field this spring, when it issued what's thought to be the world's first commercial approval of a brain-computer interface designed to revive hand movement in people with spinal cord injuries.

☎️ Pic du jour Photo: Doug Mills/The New York Times President Trump has a new Oval Office phone that says "The President," with a golden image of the White House and a scripted "Donald J. Trump." The phone has "45" and "47" branding for Trump, the 45th and 47th president. When asked about it yesterday by Fox News' Peter Doocy, Trump cracked: "You know who gave this to me? The phone company." The phone bears the logo of Cisco, the technology giant. See a close-up. Photo: Kylie Cooper/Reuters The U.S. Mint yesterday began selling golden $1 coins featuring Trump's portrait. Go deeper.

🛢️ Markets can't ignore war anymore Data: FactSet. (NY Harbor ultra-low sulfur.) Chart: Emily Peck/Axios Oil prices are heading back toward $100 a barrel and, perhaps more crucially, diesel fuel futures are now at an all-time high, Axios Markets co-author Emily Peck writes. Why it matters: Higher energy prices are showing up across the economy, driving up costs for companies, regular people and even governments around the world that are now facing higher borrowing rates. 🔎 Zoom in: After falling off early-war highs, oil prices started rising in July. At the time, attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz reignited fighting and President Trump said the "memorandum of understanding" the two countries had signed weeks before was "over." But over the past few days, tensions have intensified. The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, was trading at $95 yesterday afternoon, up from the low $80s a month ago. 💡 How it works: The rise in oil prices is driving up inflation expectations, as people expect higher energy costs to drive up both the cost of making things and the cost of moving those things from place to place. That's impacting government bond yields. Translation: Investors are demanding more interest to compensate for inflation eating away at the value of their money. The yield on the 10-year Treasury — a benchmark for mortgages and other loans — was hovering at around 4.8% yesterday, after touching its highest level in nearly three years.

Sam's sobering siren CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman gave Axios an eye-opening preview of the power and the risks of coming AI models, including his own Astra, which is expected to be released any day now. "Take our word for it that we have much, much, much more capable models coming soon," Altman said yesterday during an interview with Axios' Maria Curi and me at the G20 innovation summit. "The next generation of models are going to be sobering for everybody. ... I think no one intellectually honest can look at what's happening and not feel the weight of responsibility in front of us." Why it matters: This is a big week. Some of the world's most powerful AI voices are warning of even more ominous AI behavior in the weeks or months ahead. "These models are getting superhuman in many of their capabilities, and we are just sailing in unknown waters," Altman told me. Altman — facing scrutiny over a shocking breach by a swarm of OpenAI agents that went rogue during testing and hacked the AI company Hugging Face — sees a new normal in which companies like his will have to slow releases so their controls can catch up with their models' capability. "I suspect that from here on, we are going to be paced by how quickly we can make progress on alignment and safety," he said. At an Astra preview for VIP customers, attended by tech journalist Alex Heath, Altman said: "I expect this will be the first model where the model actually invents new things in a way that matters ... That's a very AGI-like thing." 👀 On top of Altman's comments, Dean Ball — a former Trump administration official who's now OpenAI's head of strategic futures, and one of the most closely followed AI voices on X — posted a provocative memo, "On the Loose: The Coming of Userless Agents," foreseeing "sovereign agents." "Their weights will not reside in any single place that a human can pull the plug on, and in this sense they will have no human 'owner,'" Ball writes, adding that they could commit acts that "will one day be considered crimes, or at least grave sins." Altman wants OpenAI to be seen as "the most responsible company ... good stewards of technology," he told Alex Heath. The OpenAI co-founder and CEO flew overnight to Chapel Hill to make that case to a global audience, talking with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at a summit lunch for the world's leading innovation and technology ministers. "I don't want to go too doomer here," Altman told Axios just before addressing the summit. "It has all gone quite well so far," he said. "It has gone better than people thought it was going to go ... We have risen to this challenge all along the way. The challenge gets harder as the models get more capable and more important, but we also have better tools to help us with it." 🎤 Using a new phrase you'll hear again, Altman told Lutnick onstage: "We are the pragmatic centrists. We want to be accurate in how we talk about what we see in the future. We don't want to fall into the trap of blind optimism. We don't want to fall into doomerism." "We want the whole global economy to succeed," Altman added. "We do not want to be the only company. We do not want to suck up all value. We do not think that is good for global stability." "We are very firmly and very proudly on team humanity. ... We think that people need to be at the center of the economy and society and global decision-making, and that people should run the future, not AI." 🔮 What we're watching: Altman told us he "wouldn't say, based on what happened with Hugging Face, that it's like one incident that people can project all sorts of things onto." "I would say, instead — based on the fact that we are making such rapid progress, based on the fact that these models are getting superhuman in many of their capabilities, and we are just sailing in unknown waters — caution, care is extremely warranted." Closing statement from G20 Innovation Ministerial. Maria Curi: Altman raises stakes on government scrutiny as AI advances.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY September 3 1783 Treaty of Paris signed The American Revolution officially comes to an end when representatives of the United States, Great Britain, Spain and France sign the Treaty of Paris, signifying America’s status as a free nation. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT American Revolution 1777 The Stars and Stripes flies in battle for the first time Crime 2004 Russian school siege ends in bloodbath Inventions & Science 1928 Penicillin discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming Religion 1914 Pope Benedict XV named to papacy U.S. Presidents 1919 Wilson embarks on tour to promote League of Nations World War II 1939 Britain and France declare war on Germany 1943 Allies invade Italian mainland

Iran Strikes Escalate Iran's foreign ministry accused the US of a war crime yesterday after shrapnel from a US missile hit a home hosting a wedding in Kuhestak, east of the Strait of Hormuz. The attack reportedly killed four people and wounded over 60 (see aftermath via YouTube, warning—sensitive). US Central Command said it struck Iranian military targets along the country’s southern coast Tuesday to counter Tehran’s attacks on commercial ships and US forces. The attacks resulted in 14 other fatalities. Iran responded by targeting US military bases in Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait. Most of the missiles and drones were intercepted, and no casualties were reported as of this writing. The exchange ended a monthslong pause in military action, during which the US sought to isolate Iran through economic sanctions. Meanwhile, the USS Abraham Lincoln docked in Thailand yesterday for a port call after 286 days at sea (see previous write-up). The roughly 5,000-person crew will remain there until Sunday, then return to San Diego.

Russia to close German cultural centers amid deepening tensions with Europe over supporting Ukraine WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Russia will close German cultural centers on its territory, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday in a retaliatory measure reflecting the deepening tensions between Moscow and European countries that are helping Ukraine resist the Kremlin’s 4 1/2-year-old invasion. https://apnews.com/article/russia-germany-goethe-institute-close-airport-drone-1e72ac4fd59f4a1f44859bd2e78dbde6?

At any given moment, there are 1,800 thunderstorms happening on Earth. This amounts to 16 million storms each year. James

🏞️ Parting shot! Photo: Joe Capraro Finish Line readers and newlyweds Madi and Joe Capraro are on their honeymoon through the national parks. This stunner is from their first stop, Grand Teton National Park. Next up: Yellowstone.

Some Bets Are Off (Alex Kent / The Washington Post / Getty)   View in browser The day before Donald Trump’s second State of the Union address, the former Representative George Santos shared a video of himself saying, in no uncertain terms, that he was “going to be there.” The next day, he didn’t show up. According to the prediction-market company Kalshi, that was the plan—the firm alleged that he made roughly $17,000 by betting on the platform that he wouldn’t appear at the speech. Kalshi flagged the wager to federal authorities, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the agency that regulates prediction markets, fined Santos over it in July. On Monday, Kalshi doubled down, levying a fine of its own and giving him the platform’s first-ever lifetime ban. Prediction-market companies, which let users make bets on the outcomes of all sorts of real-world events, have fully entered the mainstream over the past few years. You can find their logos at major sporting events, on cable-news broadcasts, and at awards shows. They’re easy to access and, thanks to a recent advertising blitz, essentially ubiquitous. Trading volumes on Kalshi and Polymarket, the two market leaders, have exceeded $200 billion and $100 billion this year, respectively. But these companies have strenuously resisted the idea that they should be thought of as gambling platforms. “I just don’t really know what this has to do with gambling,” Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said of his company last year. (By avoiding this classification, prediction markets have also been able to operate in states where sports betting is banned.) Instead, Kalshi and Polymarket have suggested that their platforms are digital oracles: potent indicators of what the future might hold, fueled by the wisdom of the crowd. In recent months, a nascent crackdown on insider trading has been exposing a fundamental tension in these companies’ guiding principles. If the goal is to create fair markets and not get targeted by the government, then they must enforce a ban on insider trading, as U.S. regulators already do. But if the goal is forecasting—aligning these markets’ odds with what’s really going to happen in the world—then allowing bettors to trade on inside information could actually benefit these platforms. This, at least, was once the thinking of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, who described his platform last year as “the most accurate thing we have as mankind right now, until someone else creates some sort of a super crystal ball.” In response to a question about his approach to preventing insider trading, he said in November that Polymarket “creates this financial incentive for people to go and divulge the information to the market”—theoretically creating more accurate projections. This may help explain why Polymarket has taken so long to clamp down on insider trading. The company didn’t explicitly ban the practice until March, nearly six years after its founding. Kalshi took a different tack: When I reached out to the company in January, its representatives stressed that insider trading was unambiguously prohibited. (But the question of which offenders are penalized—and what those punishments look like—still seems to be decided on a case-by-case basis.) This year, both companies have been ramping up their enforcement efforts. The shift began back in January, when The Wall Street Journal reported that, in the lead-up to the U.S. capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, an unknown trader had made more than $400,000 betting that Maduro would soon be out of power. To many observers, it certainly looked like insider trading—and lawmakers from both parties began pushing for stricter regulation. A few months later, Polymarket notified the Department of Justice that one of the soldiers involved in the operation had allegedly placed the wager, and the agency indicted him for trading on nonpublic information (he has pleaded not guilty). According to a spokesperson for Polymarket, the company’s insider-trading investigations have led to “nearly 100 referrals to law enforcement,” and its work on the Maduro bets and on a separate case involving a Google employee resulted in the “first and second prediction markets insider trading cases charged in the United States.” This week, in addition to the Santos ban, Kalshi announced several new settlements with public figures accused of insider trading on its platform, including a North Carolinian candidate for the House who has admitted to betting on her own race. (“I bet on myself,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “It was a dumb mistake, and as soon as I learned there was an issue, I worked to make it right.”) And this past weekend, Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator paid $172,000 to settle the CFTC’s claims that he was betting on the individual words that the president would use in his speeches—claims first made by Kalshi. Regulators don’t have a unified approach to this sector. As The New York Times points out, 20 states are now waging legal battles over whether these companies should be subject to the same laws as online sportsbooks. In an apparent defense of the industry, the CFTC has sued some of the states suing prediction-market companies for infringing on federal jurisdiction. Polymarket’s international platform, which runs on the blockchain, is off-limits to U.S. traders and isn’t bound by the CFTC’s rules on insider trading. But even as major legal questions remain unresolved, what’s indisputable is that insider trading is a red line for U.S regulators. Polymarket’s and Kalshi’s stricter enforcement of those rules may help keep them in the federal government’s good graces, and the appearance of fairness may also prevent people from betting elsewhere. But in taking these steps, these businesses will have to reckon with how they present themselves. They can cling to the idea that they’re not gambling platforms—but regulators may not always see it that way. Related: A technology for a low-trust society Insider trading is going to get people killed.

😡 GOP's trade beef 🍝 House Republicans are taking their growing frustration with President Trump's trade policies straight to the White House — and they aren't afraid of a food fight. Why it matters: In public and in private, Republicans are increasingly frustrated with Trump's trade policies, including allowing more tariff-free beef imports and his trade war with Canada. Vulnerable House Republicans will have an opportunity to air their grievances at a dinner tonight hosted by Trump. 🐄 "Beef is on the agenda, and maybe on the menu," said Rep. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa), who is attending the dinner. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), who is attending the White House dinner, told us that "Canada is an issue" that he plans to raise with the president. Driving the news: U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer was grilled by House Republicans with concerns about the administration's trade policies during a closed-door Republican Study Committee meeting today. "This is not just a one-year issue on the affordability of beef. We've got to make sure that we've got a Made in America First beef program here, and that means standing with our cattlemen on that … and I'm going to deliver that message directly to the White House today," Nunn told reporters. Between the lines: Republicans have largely given Trump extraordinary latitude to set trade policy. But with the midterms approaching, lawmakers are becoming more willing to push back when tariffs threaten industries and employers in their districts. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) said he's spoken with Trump and that he expected the administration to course-correct. ⏎ "I don't think he does a back turn, but I think he'll modify the position," Zinke said. 🦞 The tariffs "are terrible for families in Maine, for our lobstermen and women, for our small businesses, for our manufacturers, for our farmers," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told Politico. "There's just nothing good you can say about them." — Kate Santaliz

💸 Scoop: Coordinated money moves House Republicans are seizing on the Supreme Court's decision that freed national party committees to coordinate directly with candidates, reserving nearly $9 million in TV ads across more than 20 races this month, Axios has learned. Why it matters: Call it the National Republican Coordinating Committee. 👟 The NRCC is moving quickly to exploit its cash advantage over the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and bolster GOP candidates, many of whom have been outraised by their Democratic opponents. The committee (actual name: National Republican Congressional Committee) ended July with $92.4 million in the bank, roughly $12 million more than the DCCC. ⚖️ The Supreme Court ruled in June that national party committees can spend unlimited amounts in coordination with their candidates, giving cash-rich party committees a powerful new tool heading into the November midterms. 🚗 Driving the news: The NRCC's coordinated ad buys in the more than 20 races are largely focused on shoring up Republican incumbents and defeating Democrats who represent districts Trump won in 2024. The committee has reserved some $8.7 million in TV, according to AdImpact. 📺 "Doing the right thing in Washington isn't easy, but that's the job. I took on insurance and drug companies to cut prescription drug prices, worked across the aisle to lower healthcare costs, and backed a ban on members of Congress from trading stocks," Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-Colo.) says in one of the ads. At the bottom is a white-stenciled disclaimer that underscores what's changed: "Paid for by NRCC and authorized by Jeff Hurd. Approved by Jeff Hurd." The DCCC hasn't made any coordinated general-election reservations yet, according to AdImpact. 👀 What we're watching: A separate legal fight could determine just how far Republicans can stretch their national spending advantage. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled last week that the Federal Communications Commission erred in allowing national party committees to receive the same discounted television rates as candidates. Republicans have asked the Supreme Court to stay or vacate the ruling before Friday, when the 60-day lowest-unit-rate window begins. The other side: Democrats have also experimented with unlimited coordinated spending, but only in a trio of primaries, losing all three. In the process, the committee infuriated some House Democrats who objected to the party using hard dollars to pick sides in Democratic primaries. 💬 What they're saying: "Democrats blew through millions trying to rig their primaries for handpicked candidates and still watched socialist challengers send them packing. Meanwhile, the NRCC stayed focused on November, built a historic financial advantage, and is already translating it into over 20 coordinated ads across the battlefield," NRCC spokesperson Mike Marinella said. "While Republicans continue to attempt to rig the election in their favor by fruitlessly challenging what is now the law of the land, Democrats have deliberately invested early in digital and mail communications in order to maximize our dollars across an incredibly expansive battlefield, before going up on TV in coordination with candidates in the final two months of the election," DCCC spokesperson Courtney Rice said in a statement. The bottom line: The NRCC's aggressive posture amounts to a decision to start spending now, even as the courts decide whether its money will go as far as Republicans had hoped. — Hans Nichols

Virus season Doctors say they’re filling a void on vaccines left by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has been mostly silent. CNN’s Jacqueline Howard breaks down what you need to know about the flu, Covid-19 and RSV this fall. 😷 Tracking measles: Trump’s new CDC director ordered delay in counting 2 deaths