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Trump's secret Iran backchannel In mid-May, U.S. negotiators trying to reach a deal with Iran to end the war ran into a problem: They couldn't tell if the people across the table actually spoke for the country's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Axios' Barak Ravid scoops. So Trump administration officials did something unconventional — they went around Iran's negotiators and reached out directly to IRGC leadership. The person they tapped for the backchannel was Nechirvan Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan region in Iraq, who had something very few others do: the trust of both U.S. and IRGC leaders. Why it matters: The episode — which was detailed by three sources with direct knowledge, and hasn't been previously reported — shows how tricky it's been for the U.S. to negotiate with a country where Washington isn't sure who exactly is in charge. The sources said Barzani managed to establish a direct connection with the IRGC commander-in-chief, Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, and received assurances from him that he was on board with the deal under discussion at the time. Brett McGurk, who has served as a Middle East adviser to four presidents, told Barak: "Nechirvan Barzani is a pragmatic problem solver. He's respected across the region. He knows nearly everyone in Tehran as well as Washington. That's who you call in a pinch." What to watch: Barzani has recently sent messages to the White House offering to help restart U.S.-Iran negotiations, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. Go deeper.

🤯 Part 3: The future, reimagined Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images The only way to pull or push people to a different place or worldview is to show them what better looks like. So Jim sketched this out, based on Autumn's experience and what Mayo is building: How it could/should work: Imagine the response once Autumn started getting sick. (Her earliest symptom was pericarditis, inflammation around her heart.) Instead of going to a random doctor with scant understanding of her condition, she gets routed to someone with true expertise, who taps into a pool of data on other women with pericarditis. She hops on a Zoom with this person — who could be anywhere worldwide with access to her health data. Her vitals are easily checked at home beforehand and fed into the data. The doctor and Autumn decide together if an in-person examination is warranted. Now, imagine Autumn is actively sick and needs to go to the hospital. She lands in what Mayo calls a neighborhood: imaging, labs, procedures, consults and recovery all co-located for complex patients, instead of a scavenger hunt across buildings and appointment desks. Her costs are clear and flagged. The room itself feels healthy: controls for sound, lighting, temperature and TV. An electronic screen shows today's schedule and exactly what has to happen before she goes home. Family can easily Zoom in to chat and see her. Robots run supplies and meals, so nurses spend their hours on Autumn, not chores. AI stays in the background: sequencing appointments across specialists, transcribing and summarizing conversations, catching conflicts in a brutal medication regimen. The machines absorb the paperwork. The humans focus on Autumn. The bottom line: None of this requires an invention. Every piece of it exists right now, somewhere. What's missing isn't technology. It's the will to rebuild care around the patient — the opposite of our existing mess.

📈 Part 2: Scaling Mayo Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images It's the power of AI that could make the biggest difference and scale this further, the fastest, Farrugia argues. Mayo's scarcest asset — coordinated diagnostic brilliance based on real data, cases, lab results and patients — is exactly what AI is getting good at. Mayo knows it, running more than 12,000 clinical studies and building its Mayo Clinic Platform to digitize its expertise. 🤖 Testing technology: Before we tried Mayo, Autumn's coordinating doctors asked to use AI-assisted recording and transcription. I did the same for the AI agent I built to tackle Autumn's case using Claude. Both of us fed this into systems to make better data-informed calls. To this day, my personal AI agent has proven smarter than every doctor, other than Mayo's. Think about what Mayo data changes: A community hospital in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, will never recruit 4,000 Mayo-caliber specialists. It doesn't need to. It could tap into Mayo's expertise and data to instantly help tens of millions of patients. The harder-to-implement components of scaling Mayo — the talent, the brand, the destination economics — matter far less if the intelligence itself can be tapped by all doctors and patients. A new health care goal could be Mayo-quality care for everyone. This moves us beyond government-run health care versus free markets. The bottom line: American health care is the most expensive, bureaucratic, seemingly unfixable program on Earth. But smart policymakers, working with experts at Mayo and beyond, could spare millions of Americans Autumn's health care hell. Shame on us if we don't. ⬇️ Jim's column continues below.

What health care should look like Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Axios CEO Jim VandeHei devoted this weekend's Axios C-Suite newsletter to the challenges he and his wife, Autumn, have faced in navigating America's health care system — and their glimpse of medical nirvana: My wife, Autumn, has spent nearly a quarter of the past four years in ERs and hospitals, untangling and battling three chronic conditions — and a shamefully broken U.S. medical system. We live in Washington, D.C., with top-rated hospitals in our backyard. Yet her experience has been eye-opening and often horrifying, especially for a nation that spends twice as much on medical care as our rivals. And we're the lucky ones, with blue-chip insurance, a sophisticated understanding of the system and resources to attack problems. Most patients don't have those things. All of this left us infuriated and hopeless — until we landed in a small Minnesota city and glimpsed medical nirvana: the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. It was like discovering a foreign land — or seeing a future that could and should be. The best part: I soon discovered AI could easily help unlock the best of Mayo for everyone. Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, a gastroenterologist who's president and CEO of the Mayo Clinic, told me he's racing to show the federal government and other hospitals how to replicate the Mayo magic. 🩻 How it works: Mayo doctors work as teams. They're paid to heal, not to operate or medicate. Nurses handle four or so patients — fewer than we've experienced at even some of the best hospitals back home. Everyone is kind and talented. Rooms are clean. Every appointment begins on time. Imaging and blood tests get scheduled immediately, not after months of anxious waiting. Results land instantly in your online portal. But the real difference-maker: Doctors and patients leverage massive databases of medical information, sorted and analyzed by AI, then channeled into 500 different algorithms to help find cures and better serve patients. Consider cases like Autumn's: She has several different things wrong requiring expertise across many domains. Few, if any, humans could piece together this puzzle alone. This is where AI could make a big impact — now. Mayo recently signed a deal with Microsoft to expand and expedite its own frontier AI model to further scale and refine this work. Both Mayo and Microsoft are fine-tuning the AI with hopes of sharing it broadly. Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, Mayo Clinic president and CEO. Image via Mayo Clinic "None of this works unless health data is arranged maximally for humans and AI agents," Farrugia told me. "What makes it work or scalable is organizing all the knowledge so doctors can use it optimally and so agents can use it optimally, so we get the best data to help patients." The catch: "I could give this to every hospital — and they can't use it." That's because most hospitals lack the technology, money, systems and focus to use health data drawn from patients and broader pools. ⬇️ Jim's column continues below.

August 16, 2026 Your first month is free in The New York Times app. Download now → Good morning. More people are using A.I. to handle tasks on their behalf. Are we ready for a world in which machines are mostly talking to one another? Photo illustration by Chantal Jahchan Bot meets bot By Callie Holtermann I’m a flesh-and-blood reporter on the Style desk, and I wrote this newsletter without A.I. If you haven’t applied for a job recently, you might be surprised by the new common procedure. At one end, job seekers use A.I. chatbots to churn out résumés and cover letters. At the other, employers use A.I. to sift through all of those applications. People on each side of this equation say they need these tools to keep up with the other. But the result feels hollow, impersonal, frustrating. Are people actually getting to know each other better? This sort of thing is happening everywhere. Consider a high school student who asks an A.I. chatbot to write an essay that she submits to a teacher, who then uses A.I. to grade it. Or a person who asks a chatbot to write a witty opening line to a romantic prospect, who then uses a chatbot to generate a flirty response. Or a person who sends his A.I. agent to go argue with a company’s A.I. customer service system. “We’ve officially reached the point where customer support is just two LLMs locked in a recursive loop of ‘I understand your concern,’ while the actual humans on both ends just watch the credits roll,” one Reddit user wrote recently. Many of us have spent the past couple of years getting used to the strangeness of humans adopting chatbots as conversational partners. But now, as more of us complete everyday tasks with A.I., all of those directives are bumping up against one another. I’ve started calling these situations “bot loops” — the little whirlpools that spin up whenever humans on each side of an interaction outsource their roles to A.I. My bot, my self Some people are hopeful about the potential for these bot-on-bot interactions to streamline our work and personal lives. It’s not crazy to think that an A.I. voice agent could someday call the Department of Motor Vehicles for me, and that another A.I. agent could answer the phone. If it saves me a trip to my local D.M.V. in Brooklyn, where dreams go to die, I’m certainly interested. Whitney Wolfe Herd, the chief executive of the dating app Bumble, has suggested that our A.I. personas will eventually go on dates with each other and report back to us with the results. (When one of my colleagues tried this, it did not go especially well. Better luck next time, Eli!) Still, the experts I talked to for my new story about bot loops in The Times Magazine told me there’s a lot to worry about. A.I. systems get things wrong; string a bunch together and they could amplify one another’s errors. And there’s fascinating research emerging about so-called A.I. self-preference bias — the tendency for these systems to favor their own work. In other words, an A.I. recruiter will probably rate a résumé generated by ChatGPT more highly than one written by a human. But the thing that unsettled me most while reporting was the way that bot loops strain human relationships. The journalist Evan Ratliff thinks it’s hard to blame job applicants for using A.I. when companies don’t even bother to send real interviewers. “Once it’s a little bit debased, you do eliminate the incentive for people to show up as their authentic selves,” he said. It can be nerve-racking to show up if you don’t know whom (or what) you’ll be dealing with. Ratliff has spent a lot of time experimenting with A.I. voice agents for his podcast, “Shell Game.” When I first got on the phone with him, I found myself scrutinizing his small talk to determine whether I was speaking with him or his bot. A few minutes later, we were both laughing. It turned out he had been wondering the same thing about me. THE LATEST NEWS Democrats Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani in June. Angelina Katsanis for The New York Times A string of primary wins by progressive candidates has some asking if Democrats are facing a Tea Party moment. The Democratic National Committee formally approved changes to the party’s 2028 presidential primary calendar. South Carolina will go first. Former Senator Sherrod Brown is mounting a comeback bid in Ohio. He is one of the Democrats his party is counting on to retake control of the Senate. Trump Administration The administration’s inconsistency in its A.I. policy, particularly for national security, could leave an opening for China to infiltrate American infrastructure. The State Department is revoking the visas of foreign leaders, ambassadors and journalists to try to assert U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere. The administration’s decision to delay a federal rule on tracking tainted food affected the response to the cyclospora outbreak, food safety experts say. War in the Middle East Iran accused Qatar of capturing three pilots in the early days of the war. Qatar has denied the claim. Israeli strikes killed at least 11 people in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese health ministry said. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the country since a truce took effect nearly two months ago. More International News In Kabul, Afghanistan. Tomas Munita for The New York Times In Afghanistan, the Taliban celebrated five years in power. More than 170,000 people have signed a Canadian petition calling for the removal of the U.S. ambassador to Canada. Construction workers in Belgium found an estimated $10 million in gold buried under a defunct brewery. Other Big Stories A trustee is trying to block Nick Reiner from using his trust fund to defend himself against charges that he murdered his parents. Hurricane Lala lashed the Big Island of Hawaii, downing power lines and causing flooding, but did not make landfall. The storm is moving toward the rest of the island chain. Jinny Lu, a rescued pug with a protruding tongue, won the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest. FROM OPINION Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is almost certainly running for president, Tressie McMillan Cottom writes. But can she win? Republicans are taking steps to make health care even less affordable, the editorial board argues. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. MORNING READS In Ireland. Clodagh Kilcoyne for The New York Times We’ve made these links free for you. Racing against the tide: For one day each summer, an uninhabited Irish island fills up for an amateur horse race across the shifting sands. Happy hour with the sisters: As convents close, older Catholic nuns are finding new places to live out their lives together — and they are bringing the party with them. Believing: How to look at a painting. Fiddler: Violet Hensley’s long career performing old-time mountain music on instruments she made peaked at age 99, when she debuted at the Grand Ole Opry. She died at 109. First impressions: A great thriller hooks you right away. In the video below, Tina Jordan, the editor of the Book Review, tries to guess titles based on their opening lines. Click to watch. The New York Times SPORTS M.L.B.: Joshua Báez of the St. Louis Cardinals became the first player in league history to hit three home runs in his first major-league game. Swimming: Johannes Liebmann of Germany smashed the men’s 1,500-meter freestyle world record at the European Aquatics Championships, beating the old mark by nearly four seconds. Soccer: A consortium that includes Jeff Bezos purchased a minority stake of Liverpool F.C. It’s his first known investment into a sports team. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan “The Amateur,” by Chris Bohjalian: Like his breakout novel “Midwives” (1997), Bohjalian’s latest thoughtful page-turner begins with an accidental death. In 1978, an 18-year-old golf prodigy practicing at an exclusive country club hits a drive that kills a young caddy, shattering a well-tended suburban world. “Bohjalian’s wonderful book is a morality tale,” our thrillers columnist writes, “a snapshot of a strange, careless time in a particular slice of America, a psychological exploration of guilt and its repercussions, a portrait of a girl going off the rails — and then, because of an exciting plot twist, a courtroom drama.” Want more? Hannah Whitten, a best-selling author, recommends 11 books about rich people behaving badly. THE INTERVIEW Philip Montgomery for The New York Times “You go, ‘If I just win an award, it’ll fulfill everything,’ and it does nothing. Whatever hole you’re trying to fill is still very much at the center of your gut.” — That’s the actor Matthew Rhys in conversation with Lulu Garcia-Navarro on “The Interview.” They discussed falling in love at work and Rhys’s deep commitment to his Welsh roots. Read more of their conversation or watch it here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE Read this week’s magazine. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Prepare your home for vacation with this advice from wildlife and home-maintenance experts. Be a better friend. Here’s how to start making new connections and maintain old ones. Improve your balance with these single-leg exercises. Wear electric Kool-Aid blue. The color is all over the runways and easier to pull off than you may think. MEAL PLAN Ryan Liebe for The New York Times It’s peak tomato season and Emily Weinstein, the editor in chief of NYT Cooking, says that the best way to consume a ripe tomato is just to eat it sliced with some salt and pepper. But the second best is a classic BLT. Make this excellent one, or try these recipes for tomato basil chicken breasts, crispy halloumi with tomatoes and burst cherry tomato orzotto. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was radicchio. Can you put eight historical events — including the settlement of California, Iceland’s first Parliament and the debut of Chef Boyardee — in chronological order? Take this week’s Flashback quiz. And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Crossplay, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Host: Sam Sifton Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Deputy Editorial Director: Lauren Jackson

THIS DAY IN HISTORY August 16 1896 Gold discovered in the Yukon George Carmack reportedly spots nuggets of gold in a creek bed in Canada’s Yukon Territory. His discovery sparks the last great gold rush in the American West. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 1980s 1987 Plane crashes into highway, killing 156 19th Century 1812 U.S. surrenders Fort Detroit to the British Arts & Entertainment 1977 Elvis Presley dies Crime 1984 Los Angeles jury clears John Z. DeLorean of drug charges Sports 2009 Usain Bolt sets 100-meter dash world record 1954 “Sports Illustrated” magazine debuts 1948 Babe Ruth dies 1920 MLB player hit in head by pitch, dies next day Vietnam War 1967 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution is challenged in Senate

At least 1 student among 5 people shot at Virginia State University as police investigate Five people were wounded in a shooting involving multiple suspects at Virginia State University early Saturday, prompting a campus lockdown and police investigation just as students got ready for a new school year. Read More.

Speedy degrees Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Virginia and Ohio are developing 90-credit bachelor's degrees that students could finish in three years — joining a fast-growing national effort to rethink how long college should take. The two states hope to launch pilot programs in 2028, Axios Richmond's Karri Peifer reports. 💰 Colleges struggling to fill seats see the programs as a way to attract students put off by the cost and length of a traditional degree.

🚫 Tech's pitch to skip college Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images Some of the tech industry's most influential CEOs are challenging the four-year degree as the default path for elite talent — and building alternatives to it, Axios' Herb Scribner writes. Palantir created the Meritocracy Fellowship, which urges high school grads to "skip the debt" and "skip the indoctrination" in favor of a "Palantir degree." Peter Thiel founded the two-year Thiel Fellowship, where participants skip or leave college.

🚪 Sorry, we're closed Data: BestColleges. Map: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals The pandemic accelerated a higher-ed shakeout that's still forcing colleges to close, merge or reinvent themselves. Since March 2020, at least 49 nonprofit colleges have closed or announced closures. Forty others have merged — affecting more than 53,000 students, according to the higher-ed site BestColleges. Historically, fewer than half of students reenroll elsewhere.

✈️ America's global student edge is slipping Data: Open Doors, IIE. Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals America is losing one of its quietest superpowers: its ability to attract the world's most ambitious students, who also provide a crucial revenue stream for universities, Axios' Russell Contreras reports. By the numbers: There was a 17% drop in new international student enrollment for fall 2025, recent survey findings by the Association of International Educators reveal. This translates to over $1.1 billion in lost revenue for the U.S. economy and nearly 23,000 fewer jobs. 🌎 Between the lines: The plunge isn't just about strict immigration policies or visa backlogs from the Trump administration. A broader, unwelcoming national climate is deterring students. That reputation is prompting foreign talent to explore other options before they even apply here, Andrew Gillen, a research fellow at the Cato Institute, tells Axios. He compares turning away global talent to banning left-handed people from school: "You're sort of closing off access to whatever they would have been able to accomplish."

🔄 Colleges race to be AI-forward Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images AI is forcing colleges to rethink what students need to learn — and what a degree should prepare them to do, Axios' Megan Morrone and Herb Scribner write. Why it matters: Employers increasingly expect new graduates to arrive with AI fluency, even as colleges are still figuring out how to teach it. 💻 Split screen: This year's graduating high school seniors have had access to ChatGPT since freshman year, while this year's graduating college students booed mentions of AI at commencement. As students' command of AI has improved, colleges have revisited whether using it should always count as cheating. "Now anyone can get that expertise in a minute," OpenAI's VP for education, Leah Belsky, tells Axios. Higher education "is more coaching, mentoring, guiding students" through prompts and analyzing outputs, she says. 📈 The pressure is growing: The number of employers that expect entry-level workers to be AI-competent has nearly tripled since last fall, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. 🦾 Zoom out: Schools are racing to catch up. American, Purdue and Miami University in Ohio have launched AI-forward initiatives. 🎟️ Another route: Short-term certificate programs are becoming a faster, cheaper way to build AI skills — and a way for universities to reach a broader pool of students, Bloomberg reports (gift link). In 2022, just 2% of the professional certificate market focused on AI. This year, short-term AI training programs take up nearly a third. 📚 What students are saying: UC Davis student Burton Baecker told Axios he added finance to his accounting studies after seeing how quickly AI could perform accounting tasks. What to watch: As AI tools take on more entry-level tasks, employers are raising the bar for young workers. New graduates are now expected to manage projects and AI agents, conduct deeper research, present findings and defend their work, Casey Evans, interim dean at American University's Kogod School of Business, tells Axios.

💰 Charted: Alumni earnings premium Data: Economic Policy Institute. Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals The boost that college graduates get in pay over those who don't go to college is huge — but it's been declining a bit in recent years, Axios Markets co-author Emily Peck writes. Last year, the average college graduate earned 55.2% more than the typical high school grad, per Labor Department data analyzed by the progressive Economic Policy Institute. That's down from a peak of more than 60% a decade ago.

New college doubts Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images College was once sold as a ticket to the American dream. But students today are taking a tougher look at the college tradeoff: burdensome debt and no guarantee of a dream career — or employment at all, as AI threatens the jobs that the degrees were meant to unlock, Axios' Avery Lotz reports. "People didn't ask whether college mattered 20 years ago," says Courtney Brown, VP of impact and planning at Lumina Foundation. Now, they're asking: "Are today's students going to be prepared for tomorrow's jobs? Is it really helping them out?" 📉 By the numbers: Confidence in higher education has slipped this year among both parties and all levels of educational attainment, according to Gallup. Job market fears are also surging: Gallup found last year that just 19% of those with a college degree or more said it was a good time to find a quality job at the end of 2025, compared to 35% of those without one. But there's a paradox: Even as Americans sour on higher education, they keep sending their kids to campus. "There is still massive pressure on them from their high schools, the educators at their schools, their parents, their peers, and just the broader culture to still go to college," says The Up & Up founder and Gen Z researcher Rachel Janfaza. Today's doubts fall into three buckets — in students' own words: 💵 Affordability: "I didn't want to take out loans, and I didn't want to put my family through that stress of trying to fund it." —Gabriel Sheahan, a 24-year-old studying welding and fabrication at Lincoln Technical Institute, a trade school in New Jersey. 🏛️ Getting your money's worth: "How does it make sense that you're giving me this deadline to have my degree finished, and I can't even get the classes that I want? ... It feels ... like a rat race." —Rachel Sukkar, a 19-year-old philosophy major at UNC Chapel Hill. 🎓 Outcomes: "There's just so much volatility, and you can't guarantee the same amount of success that you could 20 years ago with a college degree now." —Moksha Agrawal, a 17-year-old incoming high school senior.

August 15, 2026 Your first month is free in The New York Times app. Download now → Good morning. There are good reasons to abandon books we’re not enjoying, but our attenuated attention might lead us to tap out too early. María Jesús Contreras Quit lit By Melissa Kirsch The book-tracking app Goodreads added a “Did Not Finish” (DNF) designation this spring so that readers can log books that they’ve put down or abandoned. The change, Erik Piepenburg reported in The Times, provoked an online debate: Is it a cop-out to DNF? As a reader who has been known to graze on books as if at a grand buffet, tasting a little bit of everything, I enter this discourse bashfully. I feel strongly that life’s too short to spend time on books one doesn’t like. But sometimes I wonder if the problem isn’t with the books but with me: impatient, seduced by novelty, impossible to satisfy. When I told my friend Leigh that some people refuse to forsake books, she responded with outrage. “Why would you bother with a book you’re not enjoying? There are a million books,” she told me, as if I hadn’t sampled the first chapter of most of them. “This sounds like vestigial Puritanism.” Indeed, but one needs to give a book a fair shake before deciding it would be punishing to continue. It takes a minute to engage with a book, to get a sense of the author’s voice and style, to understand what the book is doing. We like when books “grab” us, when they are “impossible to put down.” We’ve gotten used to the grabbiness of the internet, the posts and memes and videos that seize our attention and hold it hostage. I know I’m guilty of tapping out too early. I do it with books, but also with shows and movies. My attention struggles to distinguish between a novel and a TikTok video, between art and content, between being grabbed and being beckoned. The most compelling reason to see a book through to the end is also the simplest: “It feels good to finish stuff,” one of the people Erik interviewed said. This is no small thing. Adding a book to my Completed list is incredibly satisfying. Even if I didn’t love the book, I’ve accomplished something. I’ve taken the journey the author intended. I’ve allocated my attention to something for a significant duration — a tiny modern miracle. My friend Alice is one of the healthiest readers I know. She reads quickly and widely and is always ready with a recommendation. I figured she was a closer, a never-DNFer, the type to finish a book by hook or by crook. “I could be 90 percent of the way through and I’ll dump it,” she told me, to my surprise. “I’ll dump anything! I’d let the fork fall from my mouth if I’m halfway through a dinner I don’t like.” And yet Alice finishes more books than anyone I know. I never hear about the ones she abandons, because she does it quickly and without fanfare, without self-excoriation. She’s not keeping a public record of her DNFs, as Goodreads’s new feature encourages her to. Not finishing a book isn’t the same as never finishing a book. There’s no shame in putting aside a book that you don’t like, but finding a book that you do like takes commitment. You might try a few bites from the carving station or the chafing dishes, but eventually you sit down and eat a proper meal. THE LATEST NEWS Politics Construction of the new ballroom at the White House in July. Andrew Leyden for The New York Times The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to approve the construction of the White House ballroom. President Trump dismissed concerns about the dire conditions reported aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, which has been deployed for months as part of the war in Iran. The deployment, Trump said, was “not nearly long enough.” Federal officials spied on protesters, infiltrated group chats and obtained financial records as part of an unusual investigation into left-leaning organizations during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. Luigi Mangione Luigi Mangione at a pretrial hearing on Monday. Pool photo by David Dee Delgado Luigi Mangione admitted that he shot and killed Brian Thompson, a health care executive, as he pleaded guilty to two federal charges of stalking resulting in death. Mangione still faces a murder charge in state court. But his lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss it, saying it violates his legal protection against double jeopardy. He faces the possibility of life in prison when he is sentenced in December on the federal charges. Other Big Stories Jason Arday, the former Cambridge University scholar whose remarkable career fell apart in recent weeks amid accusations of plagiarism, was found dead in London. He was 41. Nigel Farage, the leader of Britain’s populist right-wing party, easily won a special election to reclaim his seat in Parliament. His main rival, a novelty candidate known as Count Binface, received 27 percent of the vote. Google has enabled its A.I. chatbot for K-12 students using its popular Classroom app for schools. Previously, it had only turned the feature on for students 18 and over. THE WEEK IN CULTURE Film and TV Aaron Pierre, left, and Kyle Chandler in “Lanterns.” Philip Cheung for The New York Times “Lanterns,” HBO’s next big bet in the DC universe, premieres tomorrow. Fans have been obsessing over star Kyle Chandler’s green ring. Mary Heilmann, who achieved wide acclaim for her ebulliently colored, loose-limbed, often lopsided abstract paintings, died at 86. In the sci-fi action film “The End of Oak Street,” dinosaurs invade a pleasant suburban neighborhood. It has “a sui generis oddness that’s rare in summer popcorn productions,” our critic writes. Read the review. Christy Knowings, who starred on the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series “All That,” has died at 46. In the video below, the director Jane Schoenbrun explains how the new film “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” uses conventions of the horror genre to have some fun. Click to watch. The New York Times Heists The police in Brazil recovered eight works by Henri Matisse stolen from a library last year in a brazen daytime robbery. The Italian police recovered another painting by Matisse, as well as works by Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, stolen in a separate heist this year. Theater The Edinburgh Fringe is at theater’s bleeding edge, where its next great productions and stars often emerge. Here are eight shows from this year’s festival that have audiences buzzing. Streaming has made theater a more accessible, more universal art form. Our critic highlighted some great performances and cast albums that you can enjoy from home. More Culture “A lot of stand-up comics happened, in the last couple years, to have some of the dumbest opinions on earth.” Ryan Lowry for The New York Times The stand-up Stavros Halkias has emerged as a counterweight to comedy’s rightward shift, while still remaining joyously lewd. He’s the guest on this week’s “Popcast.” Watch the interview. RM, the leader of the K-pop group BTS, is contributing 145 pieces by Korean artists to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art this fall. He says collecting Korean art has helped him find his roots. Phoebe Bridgers released her third album, “Lost Weekend.” It’s an emotional odyssey that shows off her songwriting powers, our critic Lindsay Zoladz writes. Deeply reported journalism needs your support. The Times relies on subscribers to help fund our mission. Become a subscriber today. RECIPE OF THE WEEK Linda Xiao for The New York Times By Melissa Clark Melon Salad With Nectarines, Tomatoes and Basil Embodying the “do very little to perfect ingredients” philosophy of cooking, this lovely melon salad with nectarines, tomatoes and basil from Hannah Shizgal-Paris of Roman’s restaurant in Brooklyn (as adapted by Ligaya Mishan) showcases the season’s best produce. The genius here is seasoning each component separately and building flavors gradually. Capers and pecorino provide bursts of intensity against the sweet fruit, while a squeeze of lemon ties it all together. REAL ESTATE Katherine Marks for The New York Times We’ve made these links free for you. The Hunt: A pair of former dancers looking to put down roots in New York wanted a two-bedroom in Manhattan. Which would you choose? Play our game. What you get for $480,000: A circa 1805 log cabin in Lexington, Ky.; a 1920 American Foursquare house in Pittsford, N.Y.; a Classical Revival house in Bradford, Vt. Pick your favorite summer house in Iceland: Three two-story cottages offer scenic views and close access to mountains, glaciers and waterfalls. Working with the landscape: On a hillside outside Birmingham, Ala., an architect saw a chance to create his dream house, which cascades down an incline. LIVING The free Tuesday evening water-skiing show on Lake Muskoka. Brendan George Ko for The New York Times Cottage country: Our writer was drawn to Muskoka, a Hamptons-like region of Ontario, because of its connection to the hockey romance “Heated Rivalry.” But it was the glistening lakes and weep-worthy sunsets that won her over. Basket case: The must-have accessory of the summer? A Nantucket friendship basket. Down the shore: A beach day should be carefree, so long as you pack everything you need. Here’s a roundup of the gear that five seasoned regulars never regret toting onto the sand. ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER Hacks for keeping small spaces organized If you live in a small space, you probably need to get creative to find enough storage for all your stuff. Don’t discount underutilized places: The backs of doors, for example, can be great places for miscellaneous items that fit into hanging organizers, like craft supplies, scarves or shoes. In the kitchen, use the backs of cabinet doors to hold lightweight items like aluminum foil or sponges. Hooks or magnets on the sides of the fridge can hold knives, paper towels or other small supplies. Finally, don’t overlook the forgotten areas of your home. The little nook between the toilet and the vanity, or the awkward upper corner of your kitchen, could be the perfect spot for random bits and bobs. — Caroline Mullen NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were admitting, intimidating and mandating. 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 News Staff: Evan Gorelick, Brent Lewis, Lara McCoy, Karl Russell Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Editorial Director, Newsletters: Jodi Rudoren Deputy Editorial Director: Lauren Jackson

THIS DAY IN HISTORY August 15 1969 Woodstock festival opens in Bethel, New York The Woodstock music festival opens on a patch of farmland in the upstate New York town of Bethel. The festival became legendary, and many people see it as an example of America’s 1960s youth counterculture at its best. read more Sponsored Content by REVCONTENT 21st Century 2021 Kabul falls to the Taliban after U.S. withdrawal Arts & Entertainment 1979 “Apocalypse Now” released in theaters Crime 2006 Wife of slain minister released from jail European History 1057 King Macbeth is killed by Malcolm Canmore Inventions & Science 1899 Henry Ford leaves Edison to start automobile company Landmarks 1914 Panama Canal open to traffic Middle Eastern History 1947 India and Pakistan win independence Mysteries & Folklore 1977 The mysterious “Wow!” signal is detected Vietnam War 1968 Heavy fighting erupts in and around the DMZ World War I 1914 Japan gives ultimatum to Germany

A Chicago father inspires other middle-aged parents to join him in a triathlon to raise $100K for epilepsy research, in honor of his 14-year-old son. (More) Cleveland teens develop and deliver 3D-printed prosthetic hands to pediatric patients in Ecuador. (More) Soldier husband surprises his unsuspecting wife and children after a nine-month deployment. (More) Clinical chaplain throws an in-hospital metal concert for a patient who is too fragile to leave the hospital. (More) Mom tattoos a keyboard on her arm to help her nonverbal son communicate with her. (More)

The Statue of Liberty's funding was split: France paid for the statue itself, while the United States paid for the pedestal. The French funding came from public fees, a lottery, and a gala, not boxing matches or auctions. The statue cost about 250,000 francs (roughly $50,000 at the time) James

US Rep. Russell Fry endorses Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina Republican Senate runoff U.S. Rep. Russell Fry endorsed Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina's Republican Senate primary runoff, saying on Friday that she should replace her late brother on general election ballots because of her ability to advance President Donald Trump's agenda and her understanding of everyday people's struggles. Read More. Democratic primary turnout has soared in some states. Can it carry over to November? Democratic voters are showing up for this year’s primaries in numbers not seen in decades, a pattern emerging across several states that has the party optimistic about its prospects in November when control of Congress will be at stake. Read More.

Vote counting suspended then restarted in Zambia election after attacks at polling stations Vote counting in Zambia’s presidential election was suspended Friday and then restarted hours later under heightened security after the electoral commission said there had been attacks against some polling station officials and some ballot papers had been stolen. Read More.

Collins vs. Jackson We're zooming in on battleground races ahead of the midterms. This week: Maine. For 2026, the Maine Senate race has it all: a Democratic establishment-vs.-progressives fight, a nominee swap after explosive allegations, and a rare Republican who dares to buck Trump. Why it matters: It's hard to see Democrats winning the Senate if they don't take Maine. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is fighting to remain the only Republican senator representing a blue state in a tough year for the GOP across the board. 🖼️ The big picture: It is a terrible political environment for Republicans, and Maine has not voted for the GOP presidential nominee since 1988. 📝 On paper, it should be Democrats' easiest pickup opportunity of the cycle. But Collins has defied the odds before. Her longevity, powerful role as Appropriations chair and reputation for breaking with Trump give her a boost. 🫟 A messy primary and last-minute nominee swap didn't help Democrats' effort either. 🚗 Driving the news: Collins said yesterday that all ICE agents in Maine are now equipped with body cameras at her insistence. Protests have popped up across the state targeting Collins' role in approving funding for ICE. The body camera issue is an example of Collins' pitch to Democratic and swing voters: Her clout produces tangible wins for Maine, and she isn't afraid to push back on Trump. 👀 What to watch: Democrats are still trying to move past the Graham Platner roller coaster. The new nominee, Troy Jackson, has kept a relatively low profile, though he launched his first general-election ad this week. It comes after months of national coverage of Platner's fall from progressive darling to scandal-ridden outcast. Jackson has the backing of progressive kingmaker Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). He came in third in June's Democratic gubernatorial primary and backs Medicare for all, ending funding for Israel's military and abolishing ICE. Democrats argue that Collins gets attention for occasionally breaking with Trump, even while overwhelmingly voting with Republicans. 🧮 By the numbers: The RealClearPolitics polling average has Jackson leading Collins by 2.3 points. Republicans are quick to point out that Collins faced similar margins at this stage in 2020 — and went on to win. 💵 The money: Roughly $193 million in ad spending and reservations has poured into the race, according to AdImpact estimates. The GOP leadership super PAC, Senate Leadership Fund, launched the first ad of a $42 million campaign this week, as Semafor reported. Its affiliated nonprofit One Nation is planning to spend an additional $30 million. Democrats' Senate Majority PAC has booked $33 million in ads. — Stef W. Kight

💰 Money's diminishing returns Data: KPI; Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios The 2026 midterm election is on track to be the most expensive in history. Why it matters: So far, the money hasn't always mattered. 🍺 Pour one out for your favorite political consultant. Polling has gotten noisier, and money can't compete with momentum. In three of the most expensive Democratic primaries, the winner was dramatically outspent on TV and radio, according to Kinetiq Political Insights. 💸 "Dollars don't vote — people do," said Adam Wise, a strategic consultant for KPI. "The pattern is hard to miss: The winners didn't outspend anyone, they got more voter for their dollar." By the numbers: In Michigan, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and her allies outspent Abdul El-Sayed and his allies nearly 10 to 1 on cable, broadcast and radio — $52 million to $5.2 million. El-Sayed won 48.5%–47.5%. In Minnesota, Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) and outside groups backing her put $13.8 million into TV and radio, compared with $3.3 million for Peggy Flanagan. Flanagan won by 20 points. In Illinois, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) unleashed $21.8 million in advertising, compared with $12.4 million from Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and a super PAC supporting her. Stratton won 40%–33%. Go deeper: The same pattern played out in the three most competitive Republican Senate primaries: The losers had the bigger advertising budgets. 🤠 In Texas, Sen. John Cornyn and his allies had a $58.8 million advertising operation — seven times the $8.2 million behind Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton won the runoff 64%–36%. In Louisiana, Sen. Bill Cassidy and his allies put $13.6 million into advertising, versus $9.5 million from Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) and outside groups backing her. Letlow won the runoff 57%–43%. In Georgia, Rep. Buddy Carter had $4.4 million behind him, compared with $925,000 for Rep. Mike Collins and his allies. Collins won the runoff 55%–45%. Between the lines: President Trump endorsed the winner in all three, showing that in congressional races, his endorsement is still the most valuable currency in the Republican Party. The other side: Money did prevail in three other Democratic primaries, but in all three it was paired with momentum. In Texas, state Rep. James Talarico and affiliated groups put $14.7 million into advertising — five times Rep. Jasmine Crockett's $2.8 million. Talarico won 52%–46%. 🦞 In Maine, Graham Platner put $5.4 million into TV and radio, compared with $700,000 from Gov. Janet Mills. Platner was also the target of $2.8 million in ads from GOP super PACs. Mills dropped out — and Platner later did as well — but both remained on the ballot. Platner beat Mills 78%–17%. 🌽 In Iowa, state Rep. Josh Turek and his allies had a $7.2 million advertising advantage, compared with $600,000 for Zach Wahls. Turek won 63%–37%. 🌎 Zoom out: Republican committees ended the second quarter with a cash advantage over their Democratic counterparts, even as many Democratic House candidates have outraised their GOP opponents in individual races. And Elon Musk is waiting in the wings. But if the environment is as bad as some GOP strategists privately fear, money won't be able to save all of their candidates. The bottom line: Candidates can spend a lot of money to lose an election. — Hans Nichols

📚 1 fun thing: Dorm decor Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images College dorms are becoming customized, social-media-ready micro-apartments, Axios' Josephine Walker writes. Why it matters: Dorm rooms are tiny. The decor economy is not. 💵 The "designer dorm" industry — which includes decked-out rooms worth thousands — has grown alongside viral TikTok dorm tours and hauls. Parents are also trying to make their child's transition to college easier. 🥊 Reality check: The market looks wildly different depending on which side of the Mason-Dixon line your campus sits. ⭐ In SEC country, dorm rooms are often personalized with monograms and items reflecting school spirit. 🚚 In the Northeast, dorm design can be couture, but the biggest luxury is having someone else wrestle with a U-Haul on a cramped city street. Go deeper.

🌀 A hurricane warning was issued this morning for the Big Island of Hawai'i as Tropical Storm Lala approaches, with predictions of 8-inch rainfall and potential life-threatening floods. Go deeper. Lala strengthens into a hurricane and bears down on Hawaii’s Big Island with heavy rain, winds Hawaii’s Big Island was threatened Saturday with its first possible direct hit from a hurricane in 155 years as Hurricane Lala roared in the Pacific Ocean and gusty wind, waves and rain pounded the region. Read More.

Americans jetting overseas Data: International Trade Administration. Chart: Sara Wise/Axios ✈️ Americans' craving for travel overseas is soaring to new heights, Axios' Avery Lotz writes. Why it matters: Much like the resilient consumer, the American tourist keeps on riding the post-COVID travel wave. 🔢 By the numbers: More than 56 million U.S. residents traveled overseas last year, according to estimates from the International Trade Administration. That's up from roughly 53.7 million in 2024 and around 32.7 million a decade prior. 🌍 Nearly 24 million traveled to Europe, a record high, according to Survey of International Air Travelers (SIAT) data going back to 2012. 🇬🇧 Where did most people visit? The U.K., Italy or France. 🇵🇹 Portugal and Greece also saw the biggest growth in U.S. visits between 2015 and 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported. 🔬 Zoom in: The wealthiest income bracket is driving overseas travel — followed by those with a combined household income of $100,000 to $119,000. Older travelers, in the 55-64 age range and above, led the pack, followed by the youngest jet-setters, aged 18-24. 💡 Zoom out: This is all happening as debt delays life milestones, affordability concerns sour sentiment and global perceptions of the U.S. slip. Still, people feel the need to hit the road and see the world. Rich Harrill, the director of the University of South Carolina's International Tourism Research Institute, tells Axios: "Among my students, travel's a must-have. You're not cool unless you go somewhere." Explore the data ...