What happened

Senior FBI officials last year shut down a nascent “sweeping bribery probe” that included pay-to-play allegations involving Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), ProPublica reported Tuesday, citing a “trove of evidence gathered by the FBI,” legal records and dozens of interviews. The FBI investigation stemmed from three 2024 “tell-all interviews” with Martin Kao, the former head of a Hawaiian defense contractor that secretly donated tens of thousands of dollars to Collins’ campaign after she reportedly steered millions in federal contracts to the company for research “of no real value.” Kao pleaded guilty in 2022 to illegal campaign contributions and pandemic-aid fraud charges and was sentenced to 87 months in prison in February 2025.

Who said what

ProPublica’s “truly outrageous” report is “clearly a political hit job,” Collins told reporters Tuesday, and the “seven-year-old allegations” were “thoroughly investigated” and dismissed by the Biden Justice Department in 2021. Kao’s detailed 2024 confessions “opened up an entirely new phase of the investigation,” ProPublica said. But agents didn’t “uncover much evidence to corroborate” his claims about Collins and her advisers, The New York Times said, citing “current and former officials” who also “acknowledged that it was possible more could have surfaced if the investigation had developed further.”

What next?

President Donald Trump’s “purge of anyone who had ever investigated him” eviscerated the federal units “handling public corruption investigations,” ProPublica said, and the probe “sparked by Kao’s revelations is dead.”

What happened

The Trump administration on Tuesday said it had kicked 760,000 enrollees off the Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace. Vice President JD Vance told a press conference that the canceled enrollees were a mix of “phantom people” and “real people who just don’t meet the eligibility requirements,” didn’t submit the proper documents or weren’t even aware they were enrolled in an ACA health plan.

Who said what

Tuesday’s announcement by the Vance-led anti-fraud task force “represents one of the largest administrative purges targeting individual insurance exchanges” since the administration’s “crackdown on fraud began last year,” The Wall Street Journal said. There’s “widespread agreement that unauthorized enrollments should be canceled,” ACA expert Cynthia Cox at KFF said to The New York Times, but it’s not clear that “these were all indeed unauthorized enrollments,” and Vance’s panel didn’t appear to use the “appropriate process” to determine which to cancel.

What next?

Vance said his anti-fraud effort, including further scrutiny of up to 450,000 more enrollees and bans on about 600 ACA brokers, would save $2.2 billion. The “price of ACA insurance has skyrocketed” during Trump’s second term, prompting “millions to downgrade their plans or exit the program entirely,” The Associated Press said. “Early filings from insurers suggest that prices will increase substantially again next year,” the Times said.

What happened

President Donald Trump on Tuesday told the United Nations General Assembly in New York City he was deciding whether to make a deal with Iran or “annihilate the Islamic Republic” and “drive them into hell with no chance of survival.” After his speech, his envoys met indirectly with Iranian officials for what Trump described as a “very good meeting.”

Who said what

In his 35-minute address, Trump also celebrated his military operation in Venezuela, hailed a new agreement on Greenland and criticized efforts to regulate artificial intelligence. But the “heart of the address was a fulsome defense” of his Iran war, The Associated Press said. Trump “didn’t offer an answer” on whether he would annihilate the country, The Wall Street Journal said, leaving the “question to hang over the final weeks of the campaign season as GOP candidates are facing sharp questions” about the war and its fallout, including “sharp increases” in gas and diesel prices.

Trump was “again the center of attention” at the U.N., Politico said, but even as “world leaders scrambled to stay in his good graces,” there was an “undercurrent of discontent — and even defiance — from some leaders who are seemingly preparing for a life after the U.S.-led order.” After Trump threatened to destroy Iran from a “podium where world leaders typically champion peace and global harmony,” The New York Times said, other leaders “warned of the dangers posed by division and unilateral action.”

What next?

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is scheduled to address the General Assembly on Wednesday, where “his remarks will be closely watched,” the Times said.

What happened

CNN, Politico and MS NOW on Monday filed a federal lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s decision to ban them from the White House. CNN is one of five networks in a rotating pool that provides live coverage of presidential events, and to demonstrate their objections to Trump’s press ban, the other four — ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News — stopped their cameras indefinitely.

Who said what

“As far as I know, there is no precedent either for a president to ban cameras or networks — or for networks to boycott an event in solidarity,” Hunter College presidential media expert Harold Holzer told The New York Times. “Thrilled to see it.”

With the network cameras off, Trump was largely inaudible during Monday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for his new White House helicopter landing pad. Trump tried to “shrug off the lack of network TV coverage,” The Associated Press said, but he has “long crowed about how the new helipad” would “impress Chinese President Xi Jinping” when he arrives on Wednesday.

What next?

None of the major networks traveled to New York with Trump, “nor were they planning to be present at his meetings with foreign counterparts” at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, the Times said. “If the dispute remains unresolved,” the “most television-addicted president in history” will host Xi “without network cameras present.”

What happened

Paramount Skydance on Monday settled an antitrust lawsuit with 12 states challenging its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, clearing the merger’s last major obstacle. The states, led by California, had argued that combining the two major Hollywood studios plus streaming giant HBO Max and a host of cable channels would harm competition, cut film production and raise consumer prices. There were also concerns about combining Warner Bros. owned CNN with Paramount’s CBS News division under Paramount CEO David Ellison, an ally of President Donald Trump.

Who said what

The settlement is “not a vote of support for this merger,” but it “resolves our antitrust concerns” by “guaranteeing massive investment” of $1.5 billion in “domestic film production and providing enforceable guardrails to help keep cable prices competitive,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) said in a statement. The five-year deal also includes $47.5 million for workers affected by the merger and a “News Editorial Independence Board” to “insulate” CBS News and CNN from “corporate intervention in newsroom decisions, a demand from several of the attorneys general,” said NPR. But many panned the plan for a Paramount-led oversight board, which “sounds like utter garbage,” one CBS News staffer told The Guardian.

What next?

A federal judge must approve the agreement, The Wall Street Journal said, but Paramount “expects to close the deal in about two weeks.”

What happened

A Venezuelan DoorDash driver shot in the back of the neck by an ICE officer in Austin over the weekend told reporters Monday that the bullet was still lodged near his spine and he hadn’t “received the medical attention that I require” while being held at a detention center in South Texas. Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, speaking in Spanish by phone, said an unmarked ICE SUV had turned on its police lights only after sideswiping his car twice, and the agent shot him after he asked about pulling over somewhere safer.

Who said what

The Department of Homeland Security said Perez had “illegally entered our country” and “had a final order of removal.” ICE agents started chasing Perez after they found his deportation order while checking license plates and he “was not the target of a federal investigation before the encounter,” The New York Times said, citing two people familiar with the shooting. His immigration lawyer Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch said Perez had entered the U.S. legally in 2024 and had a valid work permit. The deportation order, which Perez had not known about before Sunday, was issued when he missed an immigration court hearing after the notice was sent to an old address, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. “Not that being out of status would justify any of this at all,” she said on social media.

What next?

ICE last week erased detainees with final removal orders from its online tracking database, an “unannounced move that has made it far more difficult for lawyers and relatives to find them” and challenge their deportation, The Associated Press said yesterday. Perez’s immigration lawyers Monday filed requests in federal court in San Antonio to compel his release and block his deportation on the grounds he was now a witness in a criminal investigation.

What happened

The Trump administration on Saturday barred reporters from CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House, following through on President Donald Trump’s post a day earlier warning he was “banning” the three outlets as a “result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” The White House Correspondents’ Association and other media organizations condemned the decision, and the networks announced Monday they had filed a joint lawsuit against the Trump administration over the ban.

Who said what

Trump’s public and private “frustrations” with the media coverage of his presidency “reached a fever pitch” when “one of his closest aides, Natalie Harp, showed him clips of anchors on the cable network MS NOW criticizing his administration,” The Wall Street Journal said. His decision to ban the three news organizations hours later “caught many White House officials by surprise,” and “one senior administration official reacted with exasperation,” arguing that the move “would do little to achieve the president’s goal of improving press coverage.”

What next?

Trump is clearly “not interested in playing by traditional First Amendment rules and norms,” Penn State University media law expert Amy Kristin Sanders told The Associated Press. It’s “not an exaggeration to say his hostile actions toward news organizations and individual reporters have a chilling effect on freedom of expression around the world.”

What happened

Ukraine hit a major oil refinery in Moscow on Sunday, along with a warehouse and residential buildings, in what Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called Kyiv’s “largest ever” drone attack on the Russian capital. Sobyanin said “a few drones” got through, out of 1,600 targeting the Moscow region, including 450 aimed at the city, and the attack was “clearly planned with the aim of disrupting” Sunday’s final day of voting in Russia’s first parliamentary elections since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv said it was targeting Moscow’s Gazpromneft-Moscow Oil Refinery to deprive Russia of war funding.

Who said what

Ukraine has been using its drones to “make the Russian public feel the war’s consequences and pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into negotiating a peace settlement,” The Associated Press said. Kyiv’s refinery attacks have caused months of “widespread fuel shortages” in Russia, The New York Times said. Even before Sunday’s strikes, not “many fuel stations had any gas to sell.”

What next?

With almost all electoral competition quashed, Putin’s “ruling United Russia party is expected to retain its dominance in the parliament and present the win as proof of public support for the war,” Politico said. With 95% of votes counted, Putin’s party had nearly 58%, Russia’s Central Election Commission said Monday, though results will not be official until Sept. 25.

What happened

An ICE agent on Sunday shot and wounded a Venezuelan man in Austin as he was delivering for DoorDash, according to Texas officials and the 28-year-old man’s wife. The man, identified as Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, was in serious but stable condition after being shot in the torso, officials said at a press conference. More than 100 protesters amassed at the shooting scene.

Perez’s wife said he’d told her on the phone he was shot inside the car. Photos show two apparent bullet holes in the blue Toyota Corolla’s back passenger window, plus a big dent in the front passenger door. The Department of Homeland Security, along with the FBI, is “leading the investigation” into the shooting, DHS said in a statement late Sunday. The agency described Perez as an “illegal alien from Venezuela, who illegally entered our country under the Biden administration.”

Who said what

Videos taken by bystanders show an ICE agent “circling around to the back passenger side” of the Corolla, where he remains as the car “rolls forward slightly” and “three gunshots ring out,” The New York Times said. Perez “appears to be bleeding from a wound to his upper left back” when he’s removed and handcuffed, and “the footage does not show any of the officers providing medical care.”

“I’m very angry about this,” Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said, but “I’m not surprised at all,” given “the way ICE is doing its business these days.” More than 20 people have been shot by federal immigration agents, mostly in their vehicles and some fatally, during President Donald Trump’s second term.

What next?

Watson and other Austin officials said they expect local police and Texas Rangers to be part of the investigation. Perez’s wife, a legal resident, hasn’t “been permitted to see him” and doesn’t know where he is, her lawyer said.

What happened

A team of biologists Thursday said they have identified the first new living feline species in more than 100 years: a small spotted tiger cat that lives in Bolivia’s cloud forests. Genetic testing confirmed that Leopardus tilcayo is a new member of the cat family, the researchers reported in the journal Current Biology.

Weighing about 5 pounds, the cat resembles a “leopard that shrank to the size of a house kitten,” The Washington Post said.

Who said what

“Little is yet known about the cat’s biology and lifestyle,” Reuters said, and it’s unclear how many there are. “Our information at this moment is limited to the two live individuals that we examined, and a small number of camera-trap records,” said study co-lead author Jonas Lescroart of Belgium’s University of Antwerp. The “discovery is monumental, and not just because it’s the first new cat discovered since the pampas cat in 1923,” said National Geographic. The genomic analysis “redraws the cat family tree to have a lot more branches than previously thought.

What next?

“Showing the general public” there are still new species of a “flagship group such as cats,” said study co-author Eduardo Eizirik, transmits the “important message” that unless we preserve endangered habitats, the “many undiscovered species” are “at risk of disappearing before we even discover them.”

What happened

United Nations investigators Thursday reported they had found “reasonable grounds” to believe the U.S. committed war crimes in Iran with its “indiscriminate” attacks on an elementary school and sports center, killing at least 178 civilians, mostly children.

The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran also determined that the Iranian government had “committed crimes against humanity” by murdering, imprisoning and torturing protestors.

Who said what

U.S. officials “have ascribed the school strike to a targeting error,” The New York Times said, though the Pentagon “has not published the results of its investigation” into the bombing. The U.N. investigators said the “clearly identifiable” elementary school was the “intended point of impact,” and the U.S. military’s use of outdated targeting data “went beyond mere negligence.” The White House said Iran is the “only party in this conflict that has committed war crimes,” and the U.N. Human Rights Council, which created the mission in 2022, has been “spouting unserious nonsense for decades.”

What next?

The investigators are set to present their findings to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday. U.N. fact-finding missions are “investigative, not judicial bodies,” and can’t “initiate any criminal cases,” Reuters said. But this report “adds to international evidence gathered about crimes in the war in Iran,” The Associated Press said, and “could eventually be used in efforts to reach justice in international courts.”

What happened

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Thursday addressed the anti-vaccine advocacy group he founded, telling the hundreds of attendees they “have a strong and steadfast friend in the White House.” Kennedy’s keynote speech at the Children’s Health Defense annual conference was slotted between MAHA Institute chief Mark Gorton, who called himself the “boldest anti-vaxxer at an anti-vax conference,” and Andrew Wakefield, whose discredited and retracted 1998 study linking the measles shot to autism helped fuel the anti-vaccine movement.

This “would’ve been an unthinkable appearance for past health secretaries,” CNN said, even if the U.S. weren’t experiencing its worst measles outbreak since 1991, “driven largely by unvaccinated people.” About 3,300 cases have been confirmed this year, and the “seven reported measles-associated deaths in the last two years” are “more than the combined total” over the “previous three decades,” The Associated Press said.

Who said what

After dedicating the first part of his speech to “far more politically popular topics” like food safety and fringier topics like “so-called chemtrails,” Kennedy “plunged headlong into vaccines,” The New York Times said. That “signaled a notable shift from earlier this year when White House officials” pushed Kennedy to “sidestep the vaccine issue, given widespread support among voters for protecting children against deadly diseases.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), whose state this week reported its fourth recent measles-related death, criticized Kennedy for spending his time “addressing the premier vaccine-denial conference in America.” Kennedy’s refusal to acknowledge the deaths as measles-related “ignited a public feud” with Shapiro, the AP said. Kennedy “suggested the deaths may have been ‘fabricated,’” the Times said, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “which he oversees,” is “currently reporting no measles deaths for 2026.”

What next?

Pennsylvania’s health department late Wednesday requested emergency CDC support for its ballooning measles outbreak, “on condition that the federal agency recognize” the four deaths, Reuters said.

What happened

Tyrannosaurus rex, the “king of the dinosaurs,” was warm-blooded, with an average body temperature of 97 degrees Fahrenheit, scientists reported Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. The researchers, from UCLA, calculated the dinosaur’s temperature by analyzing the chemical makeup of tiny samples of enamel drilled from three T. rex teeth.

That “clever geochemistry technique” revealed that “T. rex ran hot, but not too hot,” The New York Times said, “somewhere on the body-temperature spectrum near large mammals like Indian elephants (97 degrees) or humans (98 degrees).”

Who said what

The T. rex temperature is “unusually high for a reptile,” CNN said, but dinosaurs “share an evolutionary link with birds,” and 97 degrees “sits between” reptiles and “modern avians.” The findings “can help scientists piece together how the dinosaur might have lived,” said The Associated Press. The UCLA researchers calculated that T. rex “could have lived across most of prehistoric North America.” Being warm-blooded “really places new constraints on its behavior, its physiology, how it interacted with other species and how much food it needed,” study co-author Robert Eagle told CNN.

What next?

Scientists plan to “test these methods on other dinosaurs to see how warm or cold they ran,” the AP said. “There’s lots of interesting, charismatic species that could be explored using this,” said Eagle.

What happened

The House Wednesday passed sweeping legislation to punish Russia and voted to hold billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas tied to Jeffrey Epstein, then adjourned until after the Nov. 3 midterms.

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) “decision to send the House home early — again” — exacerbated his “increasingly bitter feud” with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) over his alleged use of the calendar to “dodge politically painful votes,” Axios said.

Who said what

Massie “seized control” of the House for a “blistering hourlong speech” in which he accused Johnson of cutting out a day early to stymie “his bipartisan effort to force the release of more” Epstein files and his resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, The Associated Press said. It was a “colorful capstone” to Johnson’s “tumultuous” two-year tenure, during which he “repeatedly and abruptly canceled House voting days” to avoid “disruptions from his own rebellious flank — particularly those legislative efforts that threatened to rebuke President Donald Trump.” By one count, Johnson cut a net 24 days this year, “about one-fourth of the total scheduled.”

What next?

The Russian sanctions bill, which passed 262-159, now goes to Trump’s desk for his expected signature. The legislation “targets Russia’s energy and defense industries” to “deprive Moscow of funds used to pay for its war with Ukraine,” Reuters said. But it “faced pushback because it also authorizes Trump to impose stiff tariffs ​of up to 100%” on countries that don’t “reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas.”

What happened

The Federal Reserve Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time in more than three years. The unanimous vote to raise rates by a quarter-point, to about 3.9%, was “aimed at combating inflation brought on by spiraling oil prices and other factors,” including AI spending and tariffs, CNBC said. The “vast majority” of the Fed policymakers also “penciled in one more hike this year,” The Wall Street Journal said, “implicitly” undercutting “the White House’s insistence that inflation isn’t a concern.”

Who said what

The “American economy appears to be strengthening,” but “inflation is too high and has been for too long,” Fed Chair Kevin Warsh told reporters after Wednesday’s vote. President Donald Trump, who made clear he wanted rate cuts when selecting Warsh, broadcast his displeasure. “LOWER THE INTEREST RATES FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND FAST!” he wrote on social media. Rates “should be 1%, or less.”

Warsh told reporters he had “nothing for you on a discussion with the president.” But Trump said at a campaign stop in North Carolina that he’d told Warsh beforehand that he “might as well vote with the board because it’s just not going to matter.” He said he had faith in Warsh, but the rest of the board are “very hostile” and “very political,” and “they’re raising the rates to make Trump do as bad as they can possibly can do.”

What next?

Most economists expected the Fed to hold rates steady at its October meeting, “because it is just a week before the midterm elections,” The Associated Press said. But “Wall Street analysts now see a rate hike by December as a near certainty.”

What happened

Ed Sheeran’s world tour unraveled Tuesday after all his remaining supporting acts quit in solidarity with the rapper Macklemore and his onstage support of Palestinians. Macklemore said Monday that he was dropped from the tour after New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft “rallied some of the other stadium owners” to give Sheeran an ultimatum: No Macklemore or no concert.

Who said what

Tuesday’s tour pullouts by Finneas, Danish band Lukas Graham and Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga “put enormous pressure on Sheeran, who has tried to avoid politics and taking a side in the Gaza conflict,” The Associated Press said. “Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed,” Finneas, brother and collaborator of Billie Eilish, said on social media.

Kraft said Monday that Macklemore’s pro-Palestine statements at Sheeran’s recent New Jersey shows and “broader history of antisemitic rhetoric” crossed a line. Dropping Macklemore “was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine,” Sheeran wrote on Instagram. “I have my personal views on this devastating conflict,” but “I choose not to speak publicly” because concertgoers “do not expect a political forum.” That “doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

What next?

Sheeran has shows scheduled in North and South America through December. Most of the seven U.S. stadiums “are publicly owned,” CNN said. At least two recently had or will soon host concerts by Ye, “who made a spate of antisemitic comments that he now attributes to a brain injury and untreated bipolar disorder.”

What happened

FBI Director Kash Patel Tuesday sparred with Senate Democrats at a Judiciary Committee hearing that touched on his firings of experienced agents, melding of personal and taxpayer-funded travel, alleged agency politicization, the Jeffrey Epstein files and his refusal to rule out sending federal agents to voting sites in November.

Some of the “most noteworthy questions” involved Patel’s recent decision to remove bestiality and prostitution as automatic disqualifiers for FBI job applicants, Reuters said. His explanation that “he did not want ​to bar trafficking victims who had been forced to have sex with animals” drew an “incredulous response from Republicans and Democrats alike.”

Who said what

The “fiery” hours-long hearing “featured the name-calling and bitingly personal exchanges that have come to define Patel’s appearances on Capitol Hill,” The Associated Press said. As Patel “lashed out at Democrats,” said NBC News, an FBI social media account “launched attacks on several” committee members. The “tension climaxed,” Politico said, when the “normally genial” committee chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) “angrily asked” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) if he was “ready to shut up.”

What next?

Patel’s suggestion that he was “open to sending federal agents to polling places” raised alarms among Democrats, The New York Times said. “Do you pledge that you will not, in any way, interfere in the will of the American people when they go to the polls in November?” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) asked. Patel said he would “pledge unequivocally that I will not participate in your charade of lies.”

What happened

The board of the Kennedy Center, chaired by President Donald Trump and stacked with allies he appointed, voted Tuesday to close most of the performing arts center for renovation. But Trump “immediately threatened to block that work unless his name is restored to the building,” The Wall Street Journal said. Shortly before Tuesday’s vote, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper had blocked the board’s revised proposal to add Trump’s name to the outside of the building and rename the grounds “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”

Who said what

“Simply put, defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’ blessing,” Cooper wrote. And the board’s “linguistic gymnastics” to try to do so “bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted.”

The Kennedy Center fight “marks a rare setback in Trump’s second term bid to dramatically remake the nation’s capital in his gilded tastes,” The Associated Press said. But Tuesday’s developments also “threw into limbo the fate of one of the nation’s most prominent cultural institutions.”

Without signage “appropriately recognizing President Trump,” Justice Department lawyers argued in court, funding will dry up and the Kennedy Center “will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down.” The Trump administration estimates that the renovation will cost $285 million, and Congress allocated $257 million for the project last year.

What next?

The Kennedy Center said it indefinitely closed its doors Tuesday evening for safety reasons, “aggressively” testing Cooper’s order that it remain open, The New York Times said. The center later said an extended closure wouldn’t begin until the court gives its approval.

What happened

Donald Trump Jr. and Bettina Anderson’s “lavish” three-day wedding celebration in the Bahamas was “heavily funded by a secret benefactor: Umar Kremlev, a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin,” ProPublica reported Monday. Kremlev spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to rent out one of the “pair of ultra-exclusive private islands” that hosted the May wedding, plan the reception and put on a fireworks show, among other expenses.

Bettina Trump confirmed the “extraordinarily generous wedding gift” on social media. “Our dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding,” she said, but he did not attend the “intimate” ceremony.

Who said what

Accepting Kremlev’s money was an “extraordinary flouting of ethical norms for an American president’s family,” which is “generally expected to steer clear of these sorts of personal and pricey gifts,” The New York Times said, “particularly from someone in a country like Russia.” About 50 guests attended the after-party, including Eric Trump and Jared Kushner, and some were “puzzled” by the presence of Kremlev and his Russian friends, ProPublica said. “Eric has absolutely no clue who this person is,” a spokesperson told the publication. President Donald Trump said in a statement he also had “no idea who Umar is,” but “it was an ‘after-party’ given in their honor. Not a big deal!”

What next?

“This should be unthinkable” for the son of the president, retired FBI counterintelligence agent Frank Montoya Jr. told ProPublica. “If I’m paying for your wedding, at some point, you’re going to owe me something.”

What happened

The Environmental Protection Agency Monday said it had finalized a repeal of rules limiting planet-warming pollution from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas. The EPA also proposed a related measure that would prevent future administrations from regulating emissions from fossil-fuel power plants, the second-largest U.S. source of greenhouse gas emissions after transportation.

Who said what

The EPA’s “two-pronged approach to abolishing the greenhouse gas limits” completes the Trump administration’s “erasure of the most consequential climate policies” of the Biden and Obama administrations, The New York Times said. Along with scrapping Biden’s 2024 rule requiring the industry to slash emissions by the late 2030s, the EPA “argued that greenhouse gases from power plants do not endanger human health or the environment,” so it can’t legally regulate them under the Clean Air Act.

The EPA said the repeal would save $310 billion and “unleash” America’s energy potential. “Large solar and wind projects, however, provide more cost-competitive energy than natural gas and coal,” NPR said, citing financial services firm Lazard. And along with “driving Earth’s warming to deadlier levels,” the “rules targeted by Trump’s EPA could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year,” The Associated Press said, citing its analysis of EPA data and other research.

What next?

The rollback of Biden’s emissions limits will “take effect soon after publication in the Federal Register,” the AP said. Both it and the companion measure to “scuttle EPA’s legal basis for regulating power plant carbon emissions” are “certain to be challenged in court,” Politico said. But “if upheld, the rules will represent a final nail in the coffin for most federal climate regulation.”

What happened

President Donald Trump Sunday blamed Ukraine for rising diesel prices. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” Trump told reporters at his golf club in Ireland. “He’s causing a shortage of diesel fuel” and “that’s hurting the world.” The shortage “isn’t done by the Middle East,” he added. “This is done by what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine.”

U.S. diesel prices reached a record $6.20 a gallon Sunday, nearly 65% higher than when Trump attacked Iran in February. Crude oil was trading above $107 a barrel Sunday night “after new Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia and Iranian attacks on ships” in the Strait of Hormuz “compounded supply concerns following the closure of a key Saudi oil pipeline,” Reuters said.

Who said what

For months, Ukraine has been “targeting Russia’s oil and gas industry with long-range strikes,” The Associated Press said, “prompting fuel rationing” and “causing Moscow to ban diesel exports.” Previously, Russia was the “second-largest exporter of diesel, behind the U.S.,” CNN said.

But “Russian exports of diesel and oil have never been significant for U.S. consumption — the very idea is absurd,” a senior European official told Politico. Trump and his team are “blaming Ukraine because they do not know what to do” with their unpopular Iran war.

What next?

Yemen is the “latest domino to fall in the chain of instability set off by the U.S. war with Iran,” The Wall Street Journal said. Last week’s Houthi “lightning offensive” to tighten control over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait “has put the two most important energy corridors in the Middle East” under the “sway of Iran and its allies.”

What happened

President Donald Trump over the weekend caused uproar by advocating for Irish reunification. Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, and the independent Republic of Ireland have been separated since 1921 and coexisted in relative peace since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Trump’s comments “touched a live rail” in Irish and U.K. politics, The Associated Press said.

Who said what

“I don’t want to cause any problems,” but “I’d love to see it unified,” Trump said Saturday during a meeting in Dublin with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin. It would be “fantastic” and “it’s going to happen eventually,” though “the U.K. will have something to say about it, obviously.”

Trump’s comments broke “longstanding U.S. presidential convention of not taking sides” on Northern Ireland’s future, Axios said, and “managed the unusual feat of delighting Irish nationalists while alarming some Northern Irish politicians who have previously expressed support for him.” Martin said there was “no need for an overreaction” and urged politicians to “keep a calm perspective.”

What next?

The Good Friday Agreement allows for reunification if Belfast agrees and Irish and Northern Ireland voters approve the merger in referendums. The British government said unification was “off the table” unless public opinion shifts.

What happened

Joseph diGenova, a former federal prosecutor and ally of President Donald Trump, resigned Thursday from the Justice Department, where he was leading a wide-ranging conspiracy investigation into Trump’s perceived political foes. DiGenova was hired in April, weeks after Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi amid his “repeated expressed frustration” with her “pace — and limited success — in overseeing efforts to target his rivals,” The Washington Post said. He’s departing “amid mounting frustration from the Justice Department and White House over the pace and management of the probe,” The Associated Press said.

Who said what

The Florida-based investigation, which Trump’s allies call the “grand conspiracy,” is the “most fevered of the many revenge investigations” Trump has “demanded” from the Justice Department, The New York Times said. It “hinges on an unusual and untested legal theory,” the Post said: “that previous administrations conspired for years to violate Trump’s rights through a series of investigations.”

“If you want indictments where there’s no evidence, you have an ethical problem,” deGenova told the New York Post Thursday. He later told the AP there was “plenty of evidence,” but “it just takes time to get there, and some people want to get there a little faster than others.”

What next?

The “investigation has always been something of a tall order,” the AP said. So far, “no charges have been brought and it remains unclear whether any will be.”

What happened

Yemen’s Houthis on Thursday seized control of the key Red Sea port city of Mokha, giving the Iran-backed rebel group more control over the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The “lightning Houthi advance” down the Red Sea coast “came with direct guidance from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seeking to open a new front in Iran’s war with the U.S.,” Reuters said, citing Yemeni and Iranian sources.

Who said what

Mokha, or Mocha, is about 50 miles north of Bab el-Mandeb, a “geopolitical chokepoint similar to the Strait of Hormuz” on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula, CNN said. If the Houthis “use their presence in Mokha to ramp up threats or attacks on shipping in the Red Sea,” The Associated Press said, that “gives Iran another potential point of leverage in its war with the U.S.”

Saudi Arabia “pivoted to the Red Sea to export most of its oil” after the Iran war shut down Hormuz, The New York Times said. After Mokha fell Thursday, Brent crude rose above $106 a barrel and U.S. diesel prices topped $6 a gallon for the first time.

What next?

The Houthis are “expected to try to push farther south to try and take territory next to the strait,” the Times said. An “effective Houthi blockade of Bab al-Mandeb” could “require U.S. military intervention,” CNN said.

What happened

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked Missouri Republicans from using a 2025 congressional map designed to net the GOP one House seat. Justice Brett Kavanaugh earlier this week rejected a request from state officials to overrule a Missouri Supreme Court ruling that the 2025 map was void until approved by voters, and Thursday, the full court paused a subsequent order from U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark requiring Missouri to use only that new gerrymander.

Who said what

The Supreme Court’s decision to overrule Clark, issued “without any noted dissent,” was an apparent “signal that federal courts should stay out of the dispute,” Politico said. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R) said in a statement after the ruling that his office was “directing local election authorities to use the 2022 congressional map.” The Missouri Supreme Court also held Hoskins in civil contempt for ordering local officials to use the 2025 map after Clark’s ruling. But Hoskins “purged himself of said contempt” with his reversal, the justices said.

The rulings “marked a defining moment in a pitched legal battle that has lasted nearly a year,” The Associated Press said. But they also set up an “extremely rare situation” where Missouri is “poised to hold its November election” with “different U.S. House districts than were used in the August primary.”

What next?

It “seems likeliest” that Missouri’s primary winners will run in their “same-numbered districts on the old map,” The New York Times said. “If no additional courts” add to the “dizzying volley” of rulings, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D) is “favored to retain a Kansas City-area House seat that Republicans had hoped to flip.”

What happened

Europe’s Copernicus climate service on Wednesday reported that August was tied for the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the U.S. also experienced its hottest summer “in the 132-year record.” The average temperature in the 48 contiguous states was 74.37 degrees Fahrenheit from June to August, 0.4 degrees “hotter than during the peak of the devastating Dust Bowl in 1936” and 3.5 degrees above the 20th-century average, The Associated Press said.

Who said what

The Earth “cooked” due to the “dangerous double whammy of human-caused climate change and a supersized El Niño,” the AP said. America’s “unhappy trifecta: the warmest August, warmest summer, and warmest calendar year to date,” was “set by unusually big margins,” Yale Climate Connections said. The summer saw a “staggering 1,541 record monthly highs set or tied nationally,” said CNN. “Normal conditions were observed” only in “pockets of the Midwest and northern Plains,” said CBS News.

What next?

Highs in September are “favored to be above average” across the lower 48 states, said NOAA. The “Godzilla El Niño” has already boosted the oceans to record temperatures, The New York Times said, and that “extra warmth” will “spread to the rest of the planet in the months ahead, making the globe’s average temperatures likely to break more records through the end of the year and into 2027.”

What happened

Iran on Wednesday said it attacked two U.S. ships and eight tankers near the Strait of Hormuz in response to the U.S. sinking five Iranian oil tankers. The Pentagon said the tanker strikes were retaliation for Iran’s first confirmed attacks on U.S. Navy ships during the six-month war. Those attacks “failed,” The Wall Street Journal said, but “officials described some of them as close calls.”

This was the “biggest wave of attacks on shipping by both sides” yet, Reuters said, and it “sent the price of oil surging” above $100 a barrel for the first time since July. U.S. gas prices hit $4.22 per gallon, and diesel rose to a record $5.94 per gallon. On Thursday, five gas stations in California maxed out diesel at $9.99 per gallon, the highest possible price on the pump, according to GasBuddy.

Who said what

The U.S. and Iran “appear to be stuck in a cycle that is draining U.S. air defenses and deepening Iran’s economic crisis,” The New York Times said. Iranian ballistic missiles did “minimal” damage to a U.S. military base in Jordan, officials told the Times, and it may have left some U.S. troops with “traumatic brain injuries.” They also damaged “several fighter jets” at the base, CBS News said.

What next?

“I think war ​is going to end immediately after the election,” sending oil prices “tumbling downward,” because Iran “can’t hold out any longer,” President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday. Top White House advisers have “privately” discussed with Trump “that the Iran war could drag on through the remainder of his term,” the Journal said, citing U.S. officials.

What happened

President Donald Trump capped off the first night of an unusual Republican midterm convention on Wednesday with a movie-length speech in which he defended his Iran war and tariffs while also saying he would send all U.S. adults a $5,000 “Trump dividend” if Republicans retain both houses of Congress in the November elections. “Please pretend that I am running,” he told the partially full arena in Dallas. Trump was preceded by a string of Republican candidates and Cabinet members, many of whom attacked Democrats as “communists,” and a surprise video appearance by Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.).

Who said what

Trump “reveled in making the upcoming elections all about himself,” The Associated Press said. But his “financially and politically implausible” dividend pledge reflects his “apparent calculation that he needs bold moves to revive Republicans’ chances” amid “his low approval ratings.” The payouts would cost about $1.2 trillion, Politico said, which “would dwarf the amount distributed during the Covid pandemic and likely explode the deficit” and “worsen inflation.”

Trump’s “DOGE divided” and tariff rebate checks “never panned out,” The New York Times said. And “there’s reason to think that Republicans in Congress, like they did with his two previous promises of quick cash, could shrug off the president’s suggestion.” The “Trump dividend” is a “last-ditch bid to prevent an electoral shellacking,” The Wall Street Journal said. But the GOP’s “all-Trump-all-the-time strategy” could also “drive away independent voters.”

What next?

Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to give Thursday’s keynote address, but Trump is closing out the convention’s second and final night.

What happened

Lonnie Bunch III on Tuesday announced he will retire as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution at the end of the year, with “very mixed emotions and heartfelt gratitude.” The founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Bunch became the first Black person and first historian to lead the Smithsonian in 2019. His seven-year tenure as secretary was “marked most recently by attacks from the Trump administration” over “how the Smithsonian presents American history and values,” The New York Times said.

Who said what

Bunch told The Wall Street Journal his decision to retire had “nothing” to do with President Donald Trump or the White House. “It was really just saying, ‘now’s the time,’” he told the Times. Still, “it has been stressful,” and “I’d like to wake up in the morning and not look at my cellphone.” Bunch has “defended the organization’s independence” from Trump’s “efforts to assert control" over its content, CNN said, but he “also tread a fine political line.”

What next?

“Unlike the Kennedy Center, Trump does not have the power to select or remove the Smithsonian leadership at will,” Politico said. But “he can have tremendous influence in the process” through selecting new members of the Board of Regents. The 17 regents, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, will appoint Bunch’s successor.

What happened

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Tuesday rejected an emergency appeal from Missouri Republican officials to pause last week’s unanimous state Supreme Court ruling that a new congressional map is void and can’t be used in the upcoming midterm elections. But shortly after Kavanaugh’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark ruled in a separate case that Missouri can’t use any map other than the new one, designed to net Republicans one House seat as part of President Donald Trump’s mid-decade redistricting push.

Who said what

“Taken together, the dueling court orders left Missouri where it began,” The New York Times said, with “no agreement about which congressional map should be in effect in November and no immediate route to resolving that question.” Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway (R) said on X that the state is “prepared to follow and comply with” the ruling from Clark, a Trump appointee. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R) on Tuesday night instructed local election officials to use the new map, which was also used in last month’s primaries at his direction.

What next?

People Not Politicians, the group fighting the GOP gerrymander, asked Clark to stay his ruling, appealed it to the U.S. 8th Circuit Court and asked the Missouri Supreme Court to hold Hoskins in contempt for violating its order to use the 2022 maps. Missouri must start sending out absentee ballots Sept. 19.

What happened

Britain, France and Canada on Tuesday announced sanctions on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including banning all trade and services linked to them. The rapid expansion of settlements and increasing settler violence “pose a direct and urgent threat” to a two-state solution, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement. At least nine other countries said they intended to impose similar sanctions.

Who said what

“The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists,” Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said in Parliament on Tuesday. And too often, the “Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this and worse.”

The economic impact of the sanctions is “likely to be limited, since the settlements produce only a small amount of largely agricultural exports,” The Associated Press said. But it’s a “symbolic expression of displeasure with Israel by some of its closest allies” and a “new sign of the Israeli government’s growing isolation as a result of the Gaza war.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “responded to Britain’s announcement with fury and indignation and announced countermeasures,” including closing the British Consulate General in East Jerusalem, The New York Times said.

What next?

The U.S.’ Israeli ambassador, Mike Huckabee, called the sanctions “discrimination against the Jewish people” that could bring “repercussions or retaliations” from the U.S. But the White House “did not oppose” the U.K.-led effort, Axios said, citing officials and diplomats. And U.S. officials told Britain they “shared their concerns about the Netanyahu government’s West Bank policy.”

What happened

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday said he was “deeply shocked” by the far-right Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) victory in the weekend’s state elections in Saxony-Anhalt. AfD won a 43.8% plurality, according to exit polls, but fell three seats short of the majority needed to form a government. No far-right party has governed a state or major city in Germany since the Nazi era, and the AfD’s win in the small eastern state was the biggest challenge yet to the “firewall” that Merz’s Christian Democrats and other mainstream parties have erected against political extremism.

Who said what

“This is the worst election defeat the CDU has suffered in years, even decades,” Merz told reporters. “Of course, there will have to be consequences,” but “giving up is not an option for me.” The “embattled leader,” saddled with “sagging poll numbers” and a stagnant economy, “faces an uphill battle to save his government,” The Wall Street Journal said. “Impatience with Merz is now turning to panic” in his party, with many officials “pushing him to shift the government’s political course” and a “minority” seeking to lift the party’s “ban on cooperating with the AfD at the state level.”

What next?

AfD leaders said they will try to poach CDU lawmakers to gain the crucial three seats in Saxony-Anhalt or partner with the far-left BSW party, which shares the AfD’s anti-immigrant and pro-Russia views.

What happened

A man armed with two handguns and a Taser charged toward Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee Dr. Amy Acton on Sunday as she addressed a crowd at the Canfield Fair, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said. The man, Patrick Havas, knocked down at least two elderly people but was stopped before he reached Acton and did not draw his weapons, police said.

Who said what

The apparent attack attempt came as the “unofficial start of the campaign sprint” kicked off on Labor Day weekend, Reuters said, and President Donald Trump’s “deep unpopularity is imperiling Republican chances” of keeping control of Congress and state offices. Acton’s “closer-than-expected race” against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy “has become extraordinarily toxic,” The Washington Post said. Ohio politicians from both parties condemned Sunday’s political violence, which a Ramaswamy spokesperson called “completely unacceptable.”

What next?

Havas, 38, was booked in the Mahoning County ​Jail for disorderly conduct and two counts of assault. Even before the Labor Day kickoff, this year’s “campaigns already have been combative, busy and expensive,” The Associated Press said, and “they are expected to get even more so” as “voters tune in ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.”

What happened

Canada on Tuesday morning imposed steep tariffs on about $20 billion of U.S. imports, aiming to match President Donald Trump’s recent 50% tariffs dollar for dollar. The hundreds of U.S. products slapped with the tariffs, ranging from 15% to 50%, include steel, aluminum, cheese, clothing, appliances and farm equipment. Trump has been “trying to humiliate Canada economically” since trade talks broke down in acrimony last month, The New York Times said, but Prime Minister Mark Carney has his “insulted and angry nation solidly behind him.”

Who said what

Carney’s new retaliatory tariffs cover goods worth “roughly 6%” of U.S. exports to Canada last year, so they’re “unlikely to dent U.S. growth overall,” The Associated Press said. But “Canada has already gone beyond tariffs in other ways,” slashing U.S. alcohol sales with provincial bans and boycotting other goods, while Canadians “sharply cut travel” to the U.S.

The “spat with Canada” is the “latest evidence” that Trump “remains as committed as ever to his disruptive strategy of trade brinkmanship,” the Times said, despite “nearly two years of blistering court defeats, vicious international disputes and mounting domestic blowback” over rising prices and severed trade relationships.

What next?

Trump over the weekend suggested ending all trade with Canada and on Monday night threatened to block sales of Canadian Bombardier aircraft inside the U.S. Carney has “become symbolic of resistance,” Canadian historian Robert Bothwell told the AP. So Trump will try to “make an example” of him and Canada to “theoretically terrify everybody else while in fact showing them that they need to remove themselves even further from the United States.”

What happened

Fox News on Thursday said it had parted ways with financial journalist Maria Bartiromo, effective immediately, thanking her for “her work over the last 12 1/2 years.” She last appeared on air Aug. 9. Asked about reports that Bartiromo was fired for leaking confidential news coverage plans to the White House, a Fox News spokesperson told reporters only that the move was a “business decision.”

Who said what

After joining Fox Business in 2014, following a long career at CNBC, Bartiromo became “one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies at the network,” CNN said. She was fired, Status reported, because she “effectively betrayed” Fox by telling the White House that network bosses had instructed staff to “steer clear of giving credence to Trump’s delusional claims” in an “unhinged” July primetime speech on election security. Bartiromo “wanted to pursue a story related to China and 2020 election voting conspiracies,” Puck’s Dylan Byers reported, and when executives told her no, she “took a screenshot of the guidance and sent it to senior White House officials.”

What next?

Fox Business rebranded Bartiromo’s namesake programs and took down her contributor pages. “Her fans, of which there are many, will not be happy,” Trump said in an online post. “Social media lit up with speculation that Bartiromo might be in line to become White House press secretary,” CNN said. But asked about that possibility yesterday, Vice President JD Vance said, “No, I don’t think so.”

What happened

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Thursday canceled all House business for the final two weeks of September, leaving just four days for voting and other legislative activity before the Nov. 3 midterms. That’s a reversal from just days ago. “Republicans are here to work,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. “We are going to work all the way through September.”

Who said what

Johnson’s decision to shrink the calendar “comes as candidates agitate to get back on the campaign trail,” Politico said. It also “severely” curtails “what had been a full legislative calendar for September,” though “GOP leaders continue to struggle to maintain control of the House floor.”

The government is now funded through December. But among other consequences, the canceled workdays are “threatening to delay a bipartisan push to crack down on sexual misconduct in Congress,” Axios said. The reforms are “something that everybody wants,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (N.M.), the top Democrat on a task force set up to address the issue, told Axios.

What next?

After the House wraps up its next four-day workweek on Sept. 17, lawmakers “will return again for a lame duck session on Nov. 9,” kicking off five final weeks of scheduled “legislative business before the end of the 119th Congress,” said ABC News.

What happened

The Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday ruled unanimously that congressional maps redrawn by the Republican-led state legislature can’t be used in the November elections, likely thwarting a GOP effort to unseat Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D). Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R) “incorrectly” dismissed a “legal, sufficient and timely” referendum petition on the redistricting submitted in December, the court said in its opinion, so the new districts “did not go into effect and will not go into effect unless and until approved by the voters” in November.

In another “notable victory for Democrats,” The Associated Press said, the Maryland Supreme Court also agreed to let voters decide whether the Democratic-controlled state legislature can redraw congressional districts for the 2028 election, in a bid to defenestrate Rep. Andy Harris (R).

Who said what

President Donald Trump’s “quest for a midterm election advantage triggered an unusual mid-decade redistricting battle,” the AP said. Thursday’s rulings were among “only a few nationally to go against Republicans.”

The Missouri Supreme Court’s “surprising decision creates an unprecedented set of electoral circumstances,” because last month’s primaries “took place under the new lines,” Politico said. For “months, Missouri Republicans had signaled their intention” to stall “as long as possible while implementing the new maps,” and Hoskins waited until the day of the primaries to “declare the referendum insufficient.” The court’s “unprecedented decision” thrusts Missouri “into a full‑fledged constitutional crisis,” Attorney General Catherine Hanaway (R) said in a statement. She vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

What next?

The Missouri court “did not specify how candidates would be determined for a general election,” The New York Times said. “Redistricting opponents had suggested that candidates who won their primaries” could “remain the nominees in the same-numbered districts.”

What happened

The NBA on Wednesday punished the Los Angeles Clippers with the largest sanctions in league history after finding that owner Steve Ballmer and other team executives violated salary cap rules to funnel millions of dollars to star forward Kawhi Leonard. The Clippers were fined $30 million and stripped of five first-round draft picks, from 2029 to 2033. Leonard was fined $700,000, and Ballmer was banned from all team and league activities for a year.

Who said what

A one-year independent investigation found that the Clippers had improperly “covered personal expenses for Leonard,” CNN said, and “funneled off-court endorsement opportunities” to him through corporate partners who were rewarded with lucrative “team business.” Paying Leonard via a team sponsor would strike at the “very heart of the NBA’s most important financial rules” to ensure a “roughly level playing field” across the league, The Wall Street Journal said. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement he was “deeply disappointed by the flagrant violations,” and “the severity of the penalties reflects” their “seriousness.”

What next?

The Clippers “vehemently reject” the NBA’s “heavily biased investigation,” the team said in a statement, and “intend to vigorously challenge these findings and penalties through every avenue available to us.” There is “no appeal or arbitration process available to the team,” The Athletic said, citing a league source.

What happened

New York City on Wednesday announced that AI tools will be banned in public grade and middle schools and sharply limited for high school students. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office called the one-year moratorium the country’s “most expansive” limits on AI in schools. The “sweeping new policy” for the nation’s largest school district will also bar individual screens for students until third grade, The New York Times said. “So-called companion chatbots” will be “banned in all grades,” and “all high schoolers will be taught about AI literacy.”

Who said what

“The tech industry wants us to believe that AI in early education is not only inevitable, but that it is necessary,” Mamdani said in a speech Wednesday. “We do not see it that way.” A “backlash” from parents “against the growing use of digital devices and AI in the classroom” has pushed many school districts to enact new restrictions, the Times said. The Los Angeles school district — the nation’s second-largest — just began “temporarily blocking access to generative AI tools on student devices across all grades,” The Associated Press said. Other schools are “working to teach children how to incorporate the technology while preventing them from relying too heavily on it or using it to cheat.”

What next?

New York’s new rules will be in place for this school year, which begins next week, and can be extended or amended.

What happened

The Department of Homeland Security has assigned hundreds of agents to an “intensive, weekslong hunt” for noncitizen voters, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Such “election fraud is exceedingly rare,” but DHS is “pulling agents” from “investigating such serious crimes as human trafficking and terrorism” to scour state voter rolls, sometimes by “effectively posing as individual voters.”

Any suspected noncitizen voters, or people who registered to vote before they became citizens, are referred to ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit. HSI agents were assigned this week to a new “Criminal Voter Fraud surge initiative,” CNN reported. ICE is also “preparing to award” a multimillion-dollar outside contract for a “massive national database of voters,” that will include “voter registration,” as well as voting history and potentially party affiliation, Wired said.

Who said what

The Trump administration has been aggressively “targeting noncitizen voting to allege it could be a source of significant fraud during the midterm elections,” The Associated Press said. “Given the decades of evidence showing how rare noncitizen voting is, it’s unclear what the administration will discover” in its new efforts or “how verifiable any findings will be,” the Times said. President Donald Trump has already used his repeated “falsehoods about election fraud” to “sow doubt and distrust in the electoral process” and “justify sweeping voting restrictions” he is attempting to enact.

What next?

An immigrant rights group sued the Trump administration in federal court Wednesday, seeking to block DHS from “using federal databases that it alleged are being used to target naturalized citizens who are eligible to vote,” the AP said.

What happened

The House on Tuesday passed a Senate-approved stopgap funding bill that will avert a government shutdown at the end of the month. The “lopsided” 370-48 vote punts the expected fiscal 2027 “spending fight until after the midterm elections,” The New York Times said, and allows lawmakers to “quickly return to the campaign trail for the critical final weeks before the elections.”

Who said what

The stopgap measure is “simple by design,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement. “No poison pills, no divisive wish lists and no political gimmicks.” At a closed-door meeting Tuesday, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said the “bill was much improved from the product that passed the House earlier this summer on a mostly party-line basis,” according to The Associated Press. In its bipartisan rewrite, the Senate “made some changes, some that we don’t support,” GOP Whip Steve Scalise (La.) told The Washington Post. But “it’s much more important for the country to avoid a government shutdown.”

What next?

Once President Donald Trump signs the bill, the government will be funded at current levels through Dec. 11. That gives lawmakers time to “find compromise on a full-year measure,” said the AP, which will “likely be quite difficult.”

What happened

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at a summit in Kyrgyzstan that Moscow will continue supplying “the assistance you need” and “the necessary goods” during “this difficult period.” Since President Donald Trump “launched his war against Iran” in February, Russia “has backed the Iranians with intelligence, including on U.S. assets in the Persian Gulf,” and “drone components,” said The New York Times. Moscow has also been secretly helping Iran develop advanced supersonic cruise missiles, the Financial Times reported. The U.S. and Iran traded airstrikes last night, in their “first serious combat since July,” Reuters said.

Who said what

Russia’s transfer of the “strategically important military technology” to build supersonic missiles “would require political approval from Russia’s top leadership,” Conflict Armament Research analyst Fabian Hinz told the Financial Times. Such missiles would be a “qualitatively new strategic weapons system capable of threatening U.S. Navy ships,” former CIA military analyst Jim Lamson told the Financial Times. Iran has already done considerable damage to U.S. military bases in the Middle East with a new ballistic missile it calls “the Kheibar Shekan, or ‘Castle Breaker,’” USA Today said. The missile, likely developed “with the help of Chinese and Russian technology,” can “evade American air defenses and strike with far greater precision.”

What next?

Tehran vowed to respond to last night’s airstrikes with more “crushing and devastating blows” and claimed its own counterstrikes killed several U.S. personnel in Jordan and Iraq.

What happened

The U.S. Postal Service is poised to roll out a “secretive, rushed” and error-riddled online portal for states that could “derail” mail-in voting in the midterm elections, according to a whistleblower complaint released Tuesday by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). The tool was created in three months, sometimes in defiance of court orders, to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to limit mail voting before the midterms, a USPS official said in the complaint. The “slapdash” development effort and a “zero percent failure” verification requirement mean “potentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner, or at all.”

Who said what

A federal judge in Boston has temporarily halted USPS from forcing states to use its new Federal Ballot Mail Portal system. But if the stay is lifted or overturned, USPS would require states to submit lists of mail ballot recipients and get approval for envelope and ballot designs with individualized barcodes. If the system worked as designed, the whistleblower said, entire batches of tens of thousands of ballots would be rejected if there were a problem with “even one barcode on one single ballot.” Blumenthal told reporters the new system is “intended to fail.”

What next?

Blumenthal gave Postmaster General David Steiner until Friday to respond to the claims detailing “USPS’s ​seemingly illegal plot to interfere in November’s midterms.” A USPS spokesperson said the Postal Service was “carefully reviewing” the allegations but will roll out the portal “soon” to states that want to use it.

What happened

A jury in Las Vegas on Monday found former gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of first-degree murder for orchestrating the 1996 drive-by killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur. During the three-week trial, prosecutors leaned on Davis’ public admissions that he procured and handed a fellow Crips member the gun that killed Shakur. Davis’ lawyer said his client’s admissions, including in his 2019 memoir, were “fiction” to “make money” from Shakur’s murder.

Who said what

Prosecutors said Davis and his nephew, Orlando Anderson, “went hunting” for Shakur after Anderson was beaten amid a bitter bicoastal rap feud between Shakur’s Death Row Records label, allied with the Bloods gang, and Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records, protected by the Crips. Both factions were in Las Vegas for a Mike Tyson fight.

The case “had languished” for years “as important evidence, including the murder weapon, remained missing and key witnesses” refused to cooperate, The New York Times said. Davis “began speaking to the police” in 2008 to avoid serious drug charges, but the plea deal that made him “untouchable” was rendered moot after he “began repeatedly addressing the shooting publicly” under the “mistaken belief that he was fully immune from prosecution.”

What next?

Davis, 63, faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced Oct. 13.

What happened

The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for President Donald Trump to finish his 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom, ruling in a 5-4 decision that the congressionally chartered historical preservation group that won in two lower courts lacked standing to challenge the project. Chief Justice John Roberts dissented with the three liberal justices, calling the ballroom construction “likely unlawful” because it hadn’t been approved by Congress.

Who said what

“The White House is an iconic American building whose symbolism and history are wrapped up in its architecture,” Roberts wrote, and it’s crucial to “ensure that those responsible follow the rules in deciding what to tear down and what to build up at the People’s House.” The court’s majority “insisted it was not resolving the legal arguments over the president’s power to unilaterally make major changes to the White House,” Politico said. But their unsigned opinion “effectively” gives a “green light” for “construction crews to continue their nearly round-the-clock work” to complete the project before the legal questions are resolved, The Wall Street Journal said.

What next?

In court documents, the White House said the $400 million ballroom’s framework should be completed by November and the full project done in August 2028.

What happened

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll submitted his resignation to President Donald Trump on Monday, leaving the Army with no Senate-confirmed top leadership as it battles Iran and other challenges. Driscoll had “clashed repeatedly with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the ouster of key combat-tested Army leaders,” The New York Times said. Hegseth’s string of “firings and feuds” has “left the Army essentially rudderless.” He ousted Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, a Driscoll ally, in April.

Who said what

Driscoll “brought up concerns” with Trump about “Army transformation and readiness and Hegseth’s blocking those efforts specifically by firing the generals who were responsible,” a source told CNN and The Atlantic. Driscoll was a “major force behind trying to cut the red tape for military contractors to quickly develop more drones and counter-drone capabilities,” The Associated Press said. Gen. Christopher LaNeve, whose “meteoric rise under Hegseth” led to his role as acting Army chief of staff, is “pulling the plug on a drone modernization program” championed by Driscoll.

Driscoll “was until recently seen as a potential candidate to replace” Hegseth if he resigned or “fell out of favor” with Trump, the Times said. Hegseth may have “banished another enemy, Driscoll,” said The Atlantic. But his prize is that “more than ever,” he “now owns every aspect of the Pentagon’s dysfunction.”

What next?

Driscoll is “expected to leave the Pentagon in coming days,” The Wall Street Journal said. Senior administration officials said Hegseth’s choice to replace him, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, “likely would struggle to be confirmed” by the Senate, the Times said.

What happened

NASA on Sunday launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a $4.3 billion repurposed spy satellite designed to capture panoramic views of the cosmos, cataloguing Earth-like exoplanets and helping solve some of the biggest mysteries of astrophysics: dark matter and dark energy. The bus-sized telescope, named after NASA’s first chief astronomer, blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket en route to an observation point a million miles away.

Who said what

Roman is “NASA’s latest and greatest cosmic cartographer,” The New York Times said. Set to send back a “whopping one terabyte of data each day,” the telescope “promises a panorama so wide and so crisp that it would take more than half a million high-definition TVs to display in full.” While 2021’s James Webb Telescope, like a zoom lens, is designed to “probe very deeply and with exquisite sensitivity ​into the universe,” Roman’s “vast reach will allow us to find the weird, the rare and the unusual,” senior project scientist Julie McEnery said.

The new telescope’s real “superpower is speed,” The Associated Press said. The Hubble Space Telescope, “still churning out celestial glamour shots after 36 years,” could scan the entire Milky Way in a century; Roman can do it in a month.

What next?

Roman is scheduled to arrive at its L2 orbit point in about 100 days. “Its mission is planned for five years,” Reuters said, “though NASA said the telescope may have enough fuel for five additional years.”

What happened

President Donald Trump late last week said his administration had reached the “BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY” with Venezuela. The agreement, later confirmed by acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez, gives the U.S. rights to 65 billion barrels of the country’s oil reserves. Trump on Sunday described the oil as a “Gift from Venezuela,” and said it would start refilling the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve “very shortly.” But “no text of any agreement has been released,” The Associated Press said, and “many questions” remain unanswered.

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Trump has been withdrawing oil for “months to keep prices from rising even higher” during the Iran war, and the strategic reserve “now sits at its lowest level since 1982,” The New York Times said. But refilling the reserve with this Venezuelan oil is “something of a pipe dream.” Experts have “repeatedly warned that Venezuela’s dilapidated oil infrastructure will take years and billions of dollars to repair,” the AP said, and it’s unclear “who would pay for infrastructure investments.”

The details we know “aren’t cause for enthusiasm,” The Wall Street Journal editorial board said in an op-ed. The Trump administration, through the Pentagon, is “essentially getting in bed with a foreign dictator and her favored capitalist,” energy company CEO Alejandro Betancourt.

What next?

Oil companies “will remain cautious even if the terms of the deal, once released, pass legal muster,” Bob McNally, an energy adviser to former President George W. Bush, told the AP. “A future president could withdraw, and Caracas has twice thrown foreign investors out.”

What happened

The U.S. on Sunday struck two missile launchers on Iran’s Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz, its first confirmed airstrikes on Iran since July 29. U.S. Central Command said Iran was preparing to fire sea mines into the strait, days after President Donald Trump declared the international shipping lanes clear of mines.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the U.S. strikes killed “several” military personnel and civilians, and warned of “severe repercussions.” Jordan said it successfully intercepted eight missiles that entered its airspace Monday morning, headed for U.S. airbases.

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The resumption of airstrikes heightened the “risk of a return to all-out conflict,” The Wall Street Journal said, something Trump “has been working to avoid.” The administration recently pivoted to sanctions as it “weighs diminished munitions stockpiles” after six months of war, The Associated Press said.

The “heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force” and other “four-star commanders” warned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this month that “prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening their ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the U.S. homeland,” The Washington Post reported. The U.S. military is “experiencing a ‘beyond critical’ shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe,” the AP said last week, citing a U.S. defense official.

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As the war “grinds on, Trump’s talk of finding a quick end” appears to be “fading,” the AP said. He has “repeatedly declared that the ‘Strait of Hormuz is open,’” but Iran continues to strike cargo ships. Brent crude oil jumped 2.8% to $90.57 a barrel after Sunday’s attacks.

What happened

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeatedly testified in his Senate confirmation hearing last year that a 2019 trip to Samoa had “nothing to do with vaccines,” but new documents obtained through freedom of information requests “refute that testimony,” The Associated Press said Thursday. Kennedy was a “prominent anti-vaccine activist" at the time, and "critics said the visit fueled anti-vaccine sentiment" before a measles outbreak that killed 83 Samoans. In one letter, Kennedy “explicitly told the Samoan prime minister he wanted to study” the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine there and “used the words ‘vaccine’ or ‘vaccination’ eight times,” said The Guardian.

Who said what

“RFK’s platform is built on lies” that “leave a trail of dead children,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee. “There are consequences for lying to Congress.” Watchdog group American Oversight on Thursday asked the Justice Department to investigate Kennedy’s testimony for false statements. The Health and Human Services Department told the AP that “any claim or insinuation” Kennedy “lied under oath or to Congress” based on these letters is “not only false but outright defamatory.”

What next?

“Lying to Congress is a crime, whether or not the witness is under oath,” Georgetown law professor Josh Chafetz told The Guardian. But this Justice Department is “unlikely” to prosecute Kennedy.