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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

September 2, 2026 Mike McQuade By Melissa Kirsch I’ve been reading this tremendous novel from 1976 called “Bear,” by the Canadian writer Marian Engel. It’s about a woman who goes to a remote island to do research and ends up taking a bear as her lover. The Times review jibes with my own: “The narrative is pure magic, an alchemic transformation from fact into folk tale and the rich areas of the human psyche, a metamorphosis so subtle that its sexual shock is completely acceptable to us.” Check it out if you haven’t, and check out more things magical, alchemic and surprisingly engaging below. On this week’s list: 1. The lone katydid 2. Pianos near you 3. Turning the tables 4. Your birthday crossword 5. Mapping MOOP 6. A poem for the day 1. The lone katydid Shelby Tauber for The New York Times The nighttime insect chorus reaches fortissimo in late August, filling the dark with its mating calls. In the woods outside New York, it’s bliss to sit still and listen through the open window to male katydids invisibly trying to out-fiddle other suitors. I do it as the poet Diane Ackerman, one of the most perceptive chroniclers of the natural world, advises: “Eyes closed and jaw relaxed into a smile, which gives the brain a rest from the whole seeing-is-believing thing.” Insomnia offers few gifts, but one I cherish as I lie awake as dawn arrives is the call of the last katydid, the lone romantic who’s pulled an all-nighter and bravely keeps up his song after everyone else has scurried off to avoid being eaten by morning birds. The name “katydid” is onomatopoetic, from the three-syllable sound the insects make. In the early hours, instead of what Ackerman calls a “tattletale” (“Katy did! Katy did!”), I hear a plaintive cry: “Anyone? Anyone?” It’s heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, this solitary soul hoping to meet someone before the lights come on. 2. Pianos near you Lauren Segal for The New York Times Have you ever found yourself thinking, “Where is the nearest public piano?” Me neither! But I’m going to start, now that I know about this catalog of the world’s street pianos, the uprights and baby grands in communal spaces that anyone can play. Searching near me, I see there are 100 opportunities to tickle the ivories, including one in a supermarket 19.2 miles away. I also can see there’s one waiting to be played in a pizzeria in Lyon, France, and another in a sandwich shop in Yakima, Wash. My feeble repertoire of “Heart and Soul” and “The Entertainer” would likely not be welcome at either, but if you’re more musically gifted, search your area, then get out and make some music! 3. Turning the tables on Terry Gross JC Olivera/FilmMagic, via Getty Images; Daniel Dorsa for The New York Times Many people had suggested over the past few years that I would like the podcast “Talk Easy,” an interview show hosted by Sam Fragoso. I’ve resisted checking it out — what could this interview show offer me that I’m not getting from the interview shows I already love, like “Fresh Air”? I gave in when I saw that the host of “Fresh Air,” Terry Gross, was a guest on “Talk Easy,” and what do you know, I’m a convert. Fragoso, a writer and filmmaker who is 31, interviews Gross reverently. He seems to know her life story better than she does, which makes you trust him — this guy has done his homework. Gross has been getting people to open up for decades, but at first, she seems reluctant to open up herself. But Fragoso is so prepared, so game, so respectful and patient, that by the time Gross gets teary discussing her late husband, you’re certain you’re in the hands of a worthy heir to her throne. I found this conversation riveting and have since been pleasurably making my way through the vast “Talk Easy” archive. (I particularly liked the interview with the musician Patti Smith. When Smith tells Fragoso that it took her years to understand the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, he says, “I sometimes think understanding has nothing to do with art,” a perspective I found rather freeing.) 4. Your birthday crossword Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York Times Speaking of archives, my colleague Tom turned me on to this repository of New York Times crossword puzzles from 1942 to 1993. In these years before Will Shortz became the crossword editor, clues tended toward high culture over pop culture, literal definitions over wordplay. My memories of trying to do these puzzles when I was growing up are of complete bafflement at their expectation of arcane historical trivia; when Tom sent me the link to the archive, my response was “I don’t think I know enough about war!” But I took Tom’s suggestion of starting with the puzzle published on the day I was born and was surprised to find I could solve it. It wasn’t as fun and lively as the more modern crosswords, but I am now aware that certain equations are known as QUARTICS and a TARE is a type of noxious weed. Try your birthday and let me know how you fare. And if you’re interested in crossword editors of yore, check out this dyspeptic farewell from Will Weng, who retired in 1977, bequeathing Eugene Maleska the “minor joys and headaches” of readers’ feedback as well as his office chair. “The padding has worn through and the springs are beginning to get sharp,” Weng warned. “But I know better than to ask for a new chair. If I got one, it would be filched after one day. I have been on The Times ever since 1930 and have never had a decent place to sit.” (For the record, I have a very comfortable office chair — yet another thing that has changed over the years.) 5. Mapping MOOP Heidi Schumann for The New York Times The Burning Man festival is on again. Which means tens of thousands of people converging on Nevada’s Black Rock desert to “cut loose in surroundings reminiscent of both ‘Mad Max’ and Cirque du Soleil,” as my colleague Callie Holtermann described it. While I have no real desire to attend Burning Man, I do like looking at photos of its outrageous spectacles and learning about the enormous amount of coordination it takes to construct and deconstruct a temporary city. One of the festival’s principles is to leave no physical trace of its presence in the desert. A clean-up crew looks for trash or other “matter out of place,” which Burning Man calls MOOP. People perform “line sweeps,” standing arm’s length apart as they walk the area, scanning for MOOP. Every item found in the sweeps is recorded to ensure the cleanup accords with the Bureau of Land Management’s threshold (you can’t leave more than one square foot of MOOP per acre). This process takes weeks! Afterward, a map is released that details everywhere MOOP was found and how much effort it took to remediate it. The No. 1 most common item of MOOP last year was lag bolts — metal fasteners used to anchor structures to the ground. As regular readers of The Good List know, I’m taken with the ease with which the internet allows us to map things that give us pleasure, like beaches and public pianos. And now to see such labor devoted to map the random refuse of human beings living on the earth, the 146 cigarette butts and 46 paint chips left behind by Burners. Why? I suppose we map things that have meaning to us, that we want to memorialize. The MOOP map gives this detritus an eternal record of existence, for better or worse. 6. A poem for the day Steve Hebert for The New York Times The Kentucky writer Wendell Berry died this week at 92. In his poem “September 2,” he wrote of the need for rest after exertion, the natural waning of the season: And in my mind, where had stood a garden straining to the light, there grew an acceptance of decline. Having worked, I would sleep, my leaves all dissolved in flight. Read more of Berry’s poems here. One more thing: A while back I wrote about the power of sustained eye contact. Katherine Holmes, a reader from Sandwich, N.H., happened into this powerful intimacy while walking her seven-year-old chocolate lab, Bunny: My dog and I unintentionally took your advice yesterday when we locked eyes with an enormous doe. My dog squatted into “play” position and just sat there. The doe stared back at us. We were probably 10 yards apart. I kept my dog at heel so the doe could safely wander off, but she didn’t. Or wouldn’t. This detente lasted minutes. The doe finally walked toward us, which I’m not sure my dog would have interpreted as friendly, so we angled left and walked away. I’ll never know what the doe was thinking. Or my dog. It was a nice moment of connection with a member of the wildlife community. Or at least I think it was. If you had a nice moment of connection with a member of the wildlife community, or any community at all, tell us in the comments. Or email me! If you’re a Times subscriber (thank you!), you can check out past editions of The Good List anytime. And if you’re not yet a subscriber, you can explore all our journalism for free, without any paywalls, for a month by downloading the New York Times app. — Melissa The editor of The Good List is Jodi Rudoren. Eli Cohen handles the photos.

👜 1 for the road: Rotisserie chic Photo: Walmart For National Chicken Month, Walmart released limited-edition rotisserie chicken purses in two "flavors," traditional and lemon pepper. The bags, priced at $5.97, sold out in less than a day — but Walmart hinted there are "more cooking." Walmart said it's playing into this fall's "oversized clutch trend" by giving one of its most "beloved deli items a fashionable twist." Read the announcement.

🐅 Legendary golfer Tiger Woods will have his driver's license suspended for five years after striking a deal in his DUI case today. He was also ordered to pay $1,500 in fines. Go deeper.

⚖️ Google secured a major court win today when a judge ruled the tech giant won't have to spin off its "network" ad business. The decision has enormous implications for the $1 trillion global advertising economy, Axios' Sara Fischer reports.

⚓ The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier docked in Thailand today after its grueling Middle East deployment sparked concerns about sailors' mental health and living conditions. Today is the first full port stop in more than nine months — a deployment Trump said last month wasn't "nearly long enough." Go deeper. 💰 The U.S. Mint began selling gold-colored $1 coins featuring an image of Trump today. The coins can be used as legal tender, but that doesn't guarantee every store will accept them, Axios' Herb Scribner reports. 🇨🇦 Trump's beef with Canada is irking Americans. More than 6 in 10 (63%) oppose Trump's executive order to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America," per a recent Reuters-Ipsos poll. Americans also expressed wariness over the renewed U.S.-Canada trade war, Axios' Avery Lotz reports.

🤝 Trump's Anthropic truce CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the Trump administration trusts Anthropic again after months of clashes with the AI company. The statement is a remarkable turnaround from the bitter fight over national security and AI safeguards. 💡 I asked Lutnick at today's G20 innovation summit in Chapel Hill, N.C., if he trusts CEO Dario Amodei. He told me: "We trust Anthropic." Lutnick continued: "They've done what we asked. They're back on the right side. So the answer is: Yes." 🔎 The declaration comes as Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown takes a more prominent role in the company's relationship with the White House, including a headlining role at this week's G20 Innovation Ministerial, Axios' Maria Curi reports. Industry leaders know that aligning with the Trump administration goes a long way. Brown, who praised Trump's pro-data-center intervention, offers a reset for a company once on the outs with the White House. Go deeper ... More from the interview.