Morning Report - Trump deportations reach new frontiers

TODAY’S ELECTIONS story

Wahab wins race to replace Swalwell in Congress

What happened
California state Sen. Aisha Wahab (D) yesterday secured victory in the special election to serve out the remainder of former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s (D-Calif) term in the House. With nearly all ballots counted from Tuesday’s vote, Wahab (pictured above) beat fellow Democrat Melissa Hernandez 53% to 47%. Swalwell resigned in April after multiple women accused him of sexual assault and harassment. The FBI seized his electronic devices at the San Francisco airport and searched his Washington, D.C., home last weekend as part of a federal investigation into sexual misconduct allegations, CNN and other news organizations reported yesterday.

Who said what
Wahab, a progressive who ran on housing affordability, will be the first Afghan American to serve in Congress. She was long “favored to win” the safely Democratic seat, the Los Angeles Times said, but “the race became more competitive” after the pro-Israel group AIPAC “spent millions on ads attacking her.”

What next?
Wahab and Hernandez will face each other again in November to compete for a full two-year term. In an email to supporters, Hernandez, a public transit executive and former Dublin mayor, said the next election “will be in the new district lines, adding 26,000 Dublin voters who didn’t have the chance to vote for me in August.”

TODAY’S POLITICS Story

GOP senator blocks Trump nominees over wetlands rule

What happened
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) yesterday vowed to halt all of President Donald Trump’s nominees until his administration eases a wetlands conservation policy aimed at protecting the breeding grounds of ducks and other waterfowl. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last weekend said it will at least temporarily retain the Biden-era program, which bars farmers from draining land near protected federal conservation easements.

Who said what
“My farmers are furious and so am I,” Cramer (pictured above) said in a statement. The Trump administration’s “blind defense of a Biden rule favored by environmental extremists” just “confounds me,” particularly when farmers are “hurting so badly” amid “rising fuel and fertilizer costs resulting from limited traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.” But “other Republicans and hunters staunchly oppose any changes that would allow farmers to drain wetlands,” said E&E News, and “cause steep declines in duck populations.” The Upper Midwest’s Prairie Potholes region “supports more than half of North America’s ducks,” says the Washington Examiner.

What next?
“There will be no pause in my aggression” on the issue, Cramer told E&E News. “I have put a hold on all nominees, period, of all agencies. So I hope Clarence Thomas stays healthy.” Such holds “don’t necessarily prevent confirmation” of a president’s picks, said The Hill, but “they can cause a significant setback.”

It’s not all bad

Visitors to Zion National Park can now borrow an all-terrain wheelchair to better explore the area. Zion is the first national park to own and maintain such equipment, which expands park access to those with disabilities, mobility issues and injuries. The Extreme Motus wheelchairs glide over rocks, sand, gravel and grass and can float on water. They can be checked out on a first-come, first-served basis, and Zion plans to offer additional wheelchairs and accessibility devices in the future.

Under the radar

‘Breakthrough’ in notorious Mexican disappearances

The disappearance of 43 students in 2014 has come to symbolize Mexico’s “brutal cartel violence and government impunity,” said The Guardian. The case “rocked” the nation and continues to “haunt” it. But now the former governor of Guerrero state has been formally charged over his alleged involvement, after a judge ruled that Mexico’s attorney general had sufficient evidence to proceed.

Ángel Aguirre, who resigned as governor a month after the students vanished, is accused of forced disappearances, obstruction of justice and “concealing evidence to determine the whereabouts of the students" by ordering the destruction of surveillance footage. He is in maximum-security detention pending trial. A lawyer for Aguirre denied any wrongdoing.

In September 2014, 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College “commandeered several buses” in Iguala to get to a protest in Mexico City, said The Associated Press. The local cartel is believed to have attacked the students in “collusion with security forces as well as local, state and federal authorities, including the military.” The students are presumed to have been killed. Only the bone fragments of three victims have been identified.

Considered one of Mexico’s “worst human rights atrocities,” the case has been “marred by missteps and interference,” said Reuters. Aguirre’s indictment is the “biggest breakthrough” since the 2022 arrest of Jesús Murillo Karam, who was Mexico’s attorney general in 2014, said The Guardian. Karam faces charges of forced disappearance, obstruction of justice, and torture.

“We want no more deception,” said Meltión Ortega, a spokesperson for the 43 students. The victims “deserve to have the actual perpetrators and the masterminds punished.”

On this day

August 21, 1959

Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state, joining the union eight months after Alaska. While Hawaii relies heavily on tourism for revenue, its location in the tropical Pacific makes it prone to volcanic activity and other natural disasters. After being grazed by a hurricane last week, Hawaii faces a cyclone threat this weekend.

TODAY’S newspaperS

‘Fast-food chaos’

“Treasury tries intervention to cut rates, upending government’s role in bond market,” The New York Times says on Friday’s front page. “Stocks, bonds slide in brushoff” to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, The Wall Street Journal says. “Dip in retail sales is a worrying sign for inflation-weary U.S.,” The Washington Post says. “Jobless are afraid hiring is ‘broken,’” says USA Today. “ICE and Iran shaped deportation flights, newly released emails show,” The Philadelphia Inquirer says. “Concerns over Flock detection intensify” as “four officers accused of misusing camera data,” The Boston Globe says. “FBI seizes Swalwell’s phone, laptop,” The Mercury News says. “Swalwell briefly held in federal inquiry,” says the Los Angeles Times. “Fast-food chaos: Waffle House adds tacos; Chick-fil-A dishes waffles,” says The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

► See the newspaper front pages

Tall tale

Squid row

A Narragansett, Rhode Island, roadway was covered in two tons of calamari after a trailer carrying the squid detached from its truck. The driver, who was delivering it to a processing facility, was uninjured. But it took several hours to clean up the mess, and the town is still “recovering from the Squidpocalypse of ’26,” the Narragansett Police Department said on social media, dubbing it the “spill that put ‘slippery when wet’ to shame.”

Morning Report was written and edited by Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Harriet Marsden, Rafi Schwartz, Peter Weber and Kari Wilkin, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.