If it looks like a bribe and smells like a bribe...

Here are the news stories that deserve your attention for the week September 6, 2026:

#1) WAR ON IRAN

• On the Ground: As of this writing, combat operations between the US and Iran continue. This week, most of the known attacks focused on oil tankers and warships. No significant damage or casualties have been reported, yet.
  • Most notable: After the US hit five Iranian oil tankers, Iran retaliated and launched missiles at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, also known as Al-Azraq, CBS reports. The US was forced to defend the base by launching more than 30 Patriot missiles — the same interceptors that are in dangerously short supply after more than six months of war. Most of Iran's missiles were intercepted, according to Jordanian state media, but a couple made it through and damaged US military aircraft.
  • Iran claims to have attacked and then confiscated an American Saildrone — an autonomous drone that floats in the ocean. The US military denied the reports, saying all of its Saildrones are accounted for.

• Days earlier, another autonomous underwater drone known as an Anduril Dive-LD was also captured by Iran, per Reuters. The US and Anduril are downplaying the situation, but the US has "previously treated the loss of advanced drones to Iran as a serious matter," Reuters reports. "After Iran captured an RQ-170 Sentinel stealth reconnaissance drone in 2011, then-President Barack Obama publicly asked Tehran to return the aircraft. Iran later claimed it had reverse-engineered the drone and subsequently unveiled domestically produced models that appeared to draw heavily on its design."
• War Casualties. The Defense Department updated its war casualty database this week, bringing the total number of wounded in the war to 824. At least 18 service members have been killed or died during operations.
  • Six of those killed were service members at a military outpost in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, on the second day of the war. An Iranian drone hit the camp, which Hegseth claimed was "fortified." Turns out, it only had walls going up six feet high, not nearly enough to protect from an aerial drone attack. The family of one of the six service members killed wants the Pentagon to make their internal probe into the matter public, CBS News reports. In July, The Washington Post reported that generals in charge of the base ignored warnings, didn't follow protocol and left the troops vulnerable.
• NSA Bahrain. In an interview with The Epoch Times, Acting US Navy Secretary Hung Cao publicly acknowledged that Iran "blew the hell" out of a critical US base in Manama, Bahrain, in the first days of the war.
  • The base is known as "NSA Bahrain" and served as the main hub for US operations in the Middle East — and has for decades. It was home to more than 8,000 service members, DOD personnel and their families.
  • The Wall Street Journal reported extensively on the damage in June here and here, while the US military downplayed it, so Cao's acknowledgment now is notable.
  • But maybe he had no choice, because denying the extent of the damage was getting harder. At a town hall with frustrated service members last month, the Navy's Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Daryl Caudle, told them that they wouldn't be able to return to the base — their homes — to get their belongings "anytime soon." That, apparently, includes pets left behind. It's unclear where those pets are now.
  • The extent of the damage may explain why troops aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln were being fed like trash. The Navy Times reports that because NSA Bahrain was inoperable, the Navy had to shift to using a logistics hub 2,000 miles away. Logistics includes supplying food for deployed service members. "The distance required the sailors… to place food orders 30 days in advance, which proved challenging due to the unpredictable schedule of frenzied military operations."
  • In an op-ed for Military Times, retired Navy Captain John Cordle warns how big of a loss this is for the military. "The installation provides the physical infrastructure that keeps American military power continuously available in a strategically vital region. It is foundational to America's ability to project maritime power in this critical theater. The idea that the U.S. could not prevent and defend against a predictable attack on a Fleet Headquarters — and our sailors stationed there — is quite startling. It likely is just as alarming to our allies."

• Oil and Gas. Renewed fighting has had a notable impact on oil and gas prices. And it looks like it could get worse.
  • Last weekend, the national average for a gallon of gas was $4.15 — the highest ever on Labor Day. By Wednesday, it was up to $4.22. Gas prices are down from the May high of $4.56 per gallon, but they're up 30% from this time last year, CNBC reports. But not to worry! Trump said: "Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward. I think it's going to take a little bit longer than the midterm."
  • Meanwhile, diesel prices hit $6.00 per gallon for the first time ever, GasBuddy reports — up from $3.70 one year ago. "While gasoline gets the headlines, diesel is the fuel that moves the economy, powering the freight trucks, trains, agricultural equipment, and construction machinery behind nearly everything Americans buy. That means its impact reaches far beyond the transportation sector. As diesel climbs, higher supply chain costs work their way into the price of groceries, household goods, deliveries, and countless other products families rely on every day, even for households that never fuel a diesel vehicle."
  • Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy's head of petroleum analysis, said the record "will be a particularly painful one for the economy" and is "likely to reignite inflation up and down the supply chain," adding: "I suggest Americans anticipate a costlier holiday season."

• Yemen's Houthi rebels have taken control of the Red Sea coastline, Al Jazeera reports, including the Bab al-Mandeb strait — an even narrower thruway than the Strait of Hormuz — through which oil, especially from Saudi Arabia, travels. "Iran's effective control of the Strait of Hormuz plus its tightening grip on the Bab al-Mandeb Strait threatens to push oil prices even higher, weeks before November's midterm elections in the United States," CNN reports. "While the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the gateway to the Suez Canal shipping route, is less critical to global energy markets than Hormuz, it still carries essential goods worldwide, including millions of barrels of oil every day. The strait has become increasingly important since the start of the Iran war, as Saudi Arabia has re-routed some exports through the waterway to bypass Hormuz."
• More from The New York Times.
• Nuclear. The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), voted 23–3 on Wednesday to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, citing "grave concern" over "continued noncompliance" with its inspection obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Al Jazeera reports. The resolution was brought by the US, UK, France and Germany. Russia, China and Niger voted against. It is the first such referral in 20 years.
  • So what now? "The US, which has made Iran's nuclear programme a central point in the ongoing conflict, could cite the IAEA referral as evidence of a potential Iranian nuclear threat. On the same day as the IAEA report, US President Donald Trump renewed threats to target Iran's Pickaxe Mountain, which has two underground complexes near Iran's damaged Natanz uranium enrichment facility."
  • Reminder: Former DNI Tulsi Gabbard testified before Congress last year that US intelligence assessments concluded that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon.
• Dip-no-macy. Trump told reporters that the war on Iran will end conveniently "immediately after" the midterms. When asked why and how this would happen, Trump said: "[Iran] can't hold out any longer. They're desperate to try and affect the election so that we can get a nice, weak group of people in there and leave them alone and let them have their nuclear weapons." Oh, ok.
  • IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said Wednesday the war could end if the US stops threatening Iran, ends its blockade of Yemen and releases billions in frozen Iranian assets, according to IranWire. It also calls on Israel to withdraw from Lebanon. He also said the IRGC will patrol additional zones in parts of the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea and that ships that enter without permission will be penalized.

Related:

• Amnesty International says US-Israeli strikes on densely populated areas in Tehran and killed civilians should be investigated as potential war crimes.
• Vance and Rubio have warned Trump that the war could go on until at least the end of his term because "Tehran could resist US pressure under the blockade and other military tactics," The Wall Street Journal reports.
• Vance has been calling military leaders in the Middle East to get their unvarnished assessments, The New York Times reports. The leaders were "blunt" and told Vance about their concerns about the country's depleted offensive and defensive weapons.
• Back in April, Hegseth claimed that Iran's missile program had been "destroyed," but The Wall Street Journal reports that "Iran has used the period of calm this summer to rebuild its military capabilities… Arab and Israeli officials are bracing for continued fighting and the possibility Iran will escalate as the U.S. economic chokehold tightens."
• CBS got the interview with the airman — known as "Bravo" — whose F-15 was shot down over Iran in April and rescued two days later. "Uniformed service members have voiced concern that the '60 Minutes' presentation is an effort by Hegseth's office to use the heroism demonstrated by US troops as part of a successful rescue operation for political purposes, two of the sources said," CNN reports. The interview airs tonight, Sunday, September 13.

#2) MIDTERMS 2026: MANIPULATION MADNESS, THREATS, & BRIBES

As of this writing, there are 51 days until Election Day, November 3.

• Court Watch. There's a flurry of court activity. It feels like a legal game of chicken — whoever gets the last ruling in before the deadline wins — and until then, everyone keeps taking a stab.
  • First up, Republican election officials from ten states have asked the Supreme Court not to allow Trump's mail-in voting rules to take effect, arguing that doing so "significantly increases the risks of problems to the election." Trump has called on the USPS not to deliver mail-in ballots to people not on a list of approved voters nor from states that do not use specific, pre-approved envelope designs.
    • "The officials pointed out in the letter that federal law requires states to send ballots to military members and voters overseas by Sept. 19. In many respects, the election is already underway," The Washington Post reports.
    • Backing their case that the USPS is incapable… a recent audit by the USPS Inspector General found that some employees mishandled primary-election ballots this year, ProPublica reports, including postmarking dozens with the wrong dates.

"Election experts told ProPublica the new audit findings should be considered by the Supreme Court… David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research and a former Justice Department civil rights lawyer, said the audit confirms that USPS has 'a long way to go to meet its core obligations of delivering election mail in a timely manner… The administration and USPS are simply incapable of successfully meeting vast and radical new responsibilities under the president's executive order,' Becker said."

• The USPS said the audit highlighted isolated incidents and that "overall ballot mail performance is strong." The audit is here.
• The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to let it use an unreliable government database to verify the citizenship of voters ahead of the midterms. If the Court approves, states would have to run their voter rolls through the system known as SAVE, which was not designed to verify citizenship and is prone to errors.
• The League of Women Voters, which sued to block the use of the database, has until Wednesday to respond, after which the Supreme Court could rule, The Washington Post reports.
• Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh ruled that Missouri can't use a gerrymandered map that nets Republicans one additional House seat in their general election, even though they'd used it during the primary. Moments later, a federal judge in another case ruled that Missouri could keep using the new map, the AP reports. That federal judge said changing the maps after the August primary would "wreak havoc" and cause "widespread confusion." You don't say…
  • "The 11th-hour judicial theatrics underlined the frenzy of legal activity that has surrounded the rules and maps for the upcoming midterm elections, as the Trump administration pushes for a series of changes and states rush to redraw their congressional maps in a bitter political environment," The Washington Post reports.
  • In case you're wondering, it's unclear what happens now and which map Missouri will use.
• If they can't win in the courts, the Trump administration might just stick with brute force, scare tactics, and data manipulation...
  • State election officials are preparing for the possibility that federal agents could try to seize their ballots or election-related materials — like they did with Fulton County, Georgia. One state election official, who did not have permission to speak publicly, told NPR their office has led three separate statewide trainings this year to prepare for the possibility of law enforcement seeking to take possession of ballots or election materials while the election is ongoing."
  • The DOJ sent letters to election officials in 29 states and DC claiming that they're "under investigation" and the subject of "ongoing litigation," but didn't say why. Nevada's Republican Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson said she received one of the letters. The department demanded that they retain all data and records from the 2024 election, even though they're only required to do so for 22 months, The New York Times reports. It's unclear what they plan on doing with records from 2024.
    • These are the same states that the administration has sued for voter registration information containing addresses, dates of birth, driver's license numbers and partial Social Security numbers. The federal government has lost 23 of those lawsuits. The remaining ones are still pending.
• The world's richest man, Elon Musk, is behind a website — votesafe.org — that pretends to be a voter registration site but really just zaps your personal information and sells it to third parties to do who-knows-what. There's a real and legitimate website that helps with voter registration: vote.org.
  • Judd Legum reports that Musk's PAC, which funds the website, "can also sell 'inferences' it makes from the information it collects, including 'psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities and aptitude.'"
• If all else fails, there's always bribery… Which, honestly, is very on-brand.
  • At a midterm convention in Dallas this week, Trump said he'd give everyone $5,000 if the Republicans win. "It will be called the Trump Dividend."
  • House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN: "It's a new creative idea ... we applaud the president for thinking outside the box." 😳
  • It would cost an estimated $1.23 trillion. And where would it come from? Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested it could come from Trump's new "Platinum Card" program, which charges $5 million to extend your visa by 270 days.
  • Vice President JD Vance said it could come from tariff revenue, but that wouldn't even begin to cover the payments. "If you keep us in power and allow us to continue to do these things, then you're going to share in some of the benefit of this incredible wealth that we're creating in the United States of America. I don't think it's a controversial idea," Vance told Fox News. If it looks like a bribe and talks like a bribe...
  • "Marc Goldwein, the senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank in Washington, said Trump has no authority to send money to Americans without approval from Congress. Goldwein added that dividends are something that companies pay when there's a surplus, but the U.S. is running $2 trillion annual deficits and has $40 trillion in debt," the AP reports.
  • Some Republicans running for office seized on Trump's announcement for their own fundraising goals. The Washington Sun (formerly NOTUS) reports: "Groups affiliated with Reps. Wesley Hunt of Texas and Jimmy Patronis of Florida sent fundraising emails based on the check on Thursday and Friday, featuring messages like: "'Trump just promised $5,000 back in your pocket if Republicans hold Congress this midterm. … This is your FINAL CHANCE.'"
  • Some Republican lawmakers and conservative media balked at the idea, The New York Times reports. "Asked by Laura Ingraham during a Fox News interview on Thursday, 'if you have the money, why not give it now,' Mr. Trump blamed Democrats, even though Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and went on to talk about tariffs."
  • Many Republican lawmakers weren't even aware of Trump's proposal. "One person briefed on Trump's pledge described the planning that went into the proposal as 'not very vigorous,'" The Washington Sun reports.
• If all else fails, beg: "I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot," Trump told convention attendees. "I'm on the ballot. I'm on the ballot—just one more time." Trump also asked everyone to raise their right hand and pledge to him: "I pledge to the greatest president in history that loves us so much he can't even breathe…. You know what happens if you don't vote? You go to hell."

Related:

• WIRED reports that a Census Bureau report the Trump administration cited to falsely claim noncitizens voted in 2020 was flawed and that its authors have links to the GOP and Musk's DOGE.
• The Trump administration is proposing big changes to how the US Census is conducted, beginning with the next count in 2030. The proposal "calls for an unprecedented exclusion of non-U.S. citizens without a green card from a key set of 2030 census results that the 14th Amendment says must include the 'whole number of persons in each state,'" NPR reports. The government also wants to nix questions about race, ethnicity and sexual orientation.
  • "The changes, if approved and implemented for 2030, would have enormous political consequences. Census results determine how the 435 seats in the House are apportioned among states and form the basis for redrawing congressional maps. Race and ethnicity data collected through the census are also used to produce population data states receive for redistricting and to help enforce the Voting Rights Act and other civil rights laws," Politico reports.
• HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been approved to use military aircraft to fly around the country to campaign for Republican candidates this year, The Washington Post reports. In one recent trip, Kennedy traveled on an aircraft that the DOD charges $9,000 per hour to operate. A subsidized government airline ticket would have cost $250 for the same trip. The White House and HHS declined to comment.

#3) PALESTINE: GAZA, THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK

• Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported this week that UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan personally called and informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September 2023 that Hamas was planning an attack. Netanyahu did nothing. Netanyahu's office calls the report a "lie" and has vowed to sue the newspaper. The claims are detailed in a new book, Hostages: 843 Days of Abandonment. Netanyahu is up for re-election in October.
• This is not the first time we've heard something like this. Former soldiers have previously said that they warned the Israeli government about potential attacks but were ignored.
• In Gaza, Israel's genocide continues. An airstrike on a home killed a couple and their two children, ages 8 and 12. Neighbors say Israel struck their home in the middle of the night, Reuters reports.
• Israeli forces fatally shot a 27-year old pregnant woman, Iman Shalouf, in the head. She's one of at least 10 people killed over the weekend. Shalouf's husband, Ismail abu Mashi, said, "Where is the ceasefire they keep talking about? There is no such thing. There is killing every day. People are dying here every day."
• The bodies of 100 people, including 60 children, were recovered from a razed building in Gaza City, Al Jazeera reports.
• An estimated 8,000-10,000 bodies are still buried under rubble in Gaza. Israel will not allow in the necessary equipment to search for them under the debris. Instead, it is removing it, which UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese warns "cannot become a way to erase traces of atrocity crimes... Gaza's rubble contains human remains and physical evidence relevant to the investigation of alleged international crimes, including genocide," The Guardian reports.
• In a speech to Parliament, the UK's Foreign Minister Ed Miliband announced a ban on goods from illegal Israeli West Bank settlements, accused Israel of ethnic cleansing in the occupied territory, and said the UK would restrict arms sales to Israel.
  • "After Miliband's speech, 12 countries shared a joint statement supporting the two-state solution and announcing their own intentions to impose restrictions on trade with illegal Israeli settlements," Al Jazeera reports. "France, the UK, Canada, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Sweden called on the Israeli government to immediately halt the expansion of settlements."
  • Miliband, who is Jewish, also announced sanctions on Hezbollah and settler terrorists. Israel responded by telling the British consulate to leave its East Jerusalem location in a month.
• United Airlines has been using commercial flights to ship military equipment to Israel, which could be a violation of international law, The Intercept reports.
• NAZA, a documentary film that interviews 24 Israeli military and intelligence officers about war crimes in Gaza, premiered at the Venice Film Festival this week. The film is the product of years of research and interviews by journalists and filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, who also published their findings in +972 Magazine. Both also helped direct (with Palestinians Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal) the Oscar-winning documentary film "No Other Land" about the occupied West Bank community of Masafer Yatta terrorized by Israeli settlers.

One of the officers we interviewed describes how he was fully aware in real time of hundreds of cases in which families were going about their normal lives — a man talking to his wife, the sound of a TV show, prayer, a crying baby — and then he gave the clearance to bomb them. When asked why, he explained: "You understand that the objective is to destroy."

"The film uncovers a system that is fiendishly efficient. Its series of disconnects appears designed to distance the perpetrators from the crime. Many of these men work remotely from Tel Aviv. AI selects the target and a drone drops the bomb. Even the language feels purposely euphemistic and obfuscatory. NAZA translates as collateral damage, which in turn translates to human beings. 'Sure, it's easier to kill people when you're doing it on a screen,' Abraham says. 'There is some truth in that, I guess. But equally it should be said that intelligence officers know the most. They listen to the cellphones. They know the house they are bombing is full of children. They can hear babies crying. They still order another strike.'"

- The Guardian

4) 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11

On Friday, the US marked the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed 2,977 people.

• The four living ex-presidents — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden — all attended the Ground Zero commemoration. Trump refused to attend because he wasn't allowed to give a political speech, which is usually prohibited – and tacky – at solemn events like this. Vice President JD Vance attended instead.
  • Trump and Hegseth attended a memorial at the Pentagon and used their speeches to defend their war on Iran.
  • Earlier in the week, at an event to posthumously honor firefighter Welles Crowther — known as the "man in the red bandana" — who saved people from the World Trade Center's South Tower, Trump said: "The man in the red bandana has become more famous than me. I don't like it."
  • Trump also reiterated claims that he led a group of people to help first responders at Ground Zero — a claim that no one is able to verify.
• The CIA declassified 71 intelligence briefings produced in the years and months leading up to the attacks. In one, dated September 10, 1998, a CIA analyst warned Clinton that Bin Laden had said "his preferred option is to strike the US on its own soil in Washington" and "may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city," The New York Times reports.
  • "The documents released Friday reinforce the central findings of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States and its 2004 report: U.S. intelligence agencies warned about Al Qaeda consistently, but failed to understand the scale of the attack the group had in mind."
  • One titled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US," issued in August 2001, says: "FBI information… indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York."
  • See all the documents here.
• The National Archives declassified two reports commissioned by the 9/11 Commission, including a summary of all intelligence related to Bin Laden in the three years before the attacks, as well as interviews with key government officials, including then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and CIA Director George Tenet.
• Mayor Zohran Mamdani's office released 170,000 pages of documents showing that city officials knew the air around Ground Zero was unsafe, even though they told people it was. The advocacy group 9/11 Health Watch filed a suit to make the records public. Almost 3,000 people died from the attacks. It's believed that as many as three times that number have died from 9/11-related diseases. More from CNN. More on the health impact and numbers from Scientific American.
  • You can search the government portal with access to the documents here. More are expected to be added.
• Former NY Gov. George Pataki announced that he is battling a lung disease caused by his exposure to toxins around Ground Zero after the September 11 attacks, The New York Post reports. Pataki was governor at the time.

The AI Warning

Jacob Coxon, a researcher for Anthropic, announced on X that he resigned from the company, accusing it — and OpenAI — of "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives."

Coxon added:

"The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives and senior researchers will couch their phrasing in the press to sound sensible - but I hear the same people express fear privately. No other human activity poses this level of danger."

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told Politico that Congress needs to regulate AI and called the post "scary as hell."

Axios reports that a bipartisan group of House lawmakers is circulating a letter petitioning Speaker Mike Johnson to keep the chamber in session until it passes urgent AI regulation.

As of now, the House is scheduled to adjourn in a week and won't be back until November 9.

"To our children who will have read a post-apocalyptic history, 'Why Congress Slept' — likely written by agentic AI — our inaction will be inexplicable, and unforgivable," the letter says.

Meanwhile, Anthropic said it banned accounts using its AI models to develop biological weapons, The New York Times reports.

In a report detailing various ways its technology was being misused, the company "said it could not determine whether the research served a legitimate or nefarious purpose because valid biological inquiry — the kind that can lead to breakthroughs like vaccines — can also help engineer dangerous pathogens. In the face of that uncertainty, Anthropic said it erred on the side of caution because the consequences of missing malicious activity could be severe."

The company also reported that accounts based in China, Russia and Yemen tried to use its technology to create weapons like missiles and armed drones.

• There are murmurs that Hegseth may be on Trump's chopping block, but if not, Politico reports that Democrats have him in their crosshairs if they win control of Congress in November.
• America's NATO envoy Matthew Whitaker tried to pressure 32 countries to withdraw from and help dismantle the International Criminal Court (ICC) in a July meeting, Politico reports, citing three diplomats.
  • "The pressure on allies to quit the court — driven by U.S. concern that its own officials could face war crimes prosecutions — is part of a broader Trump administration campaign against international institutions and rules seen as limiting U.S. freedom of action."
• Trump is threatening to change the name of New Mexico to… you guessed it: New America.
• Two can play that game: South Park is changing its name to "South America."
  • In a statement, the show's creators said: "Inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google, we are changing the name of South Park to SOUTH AMERICA. We especially want to thank our parent company Paramount – a Skydance Capitulation."
  • The Trump administration approved the Paramount Skydance merger. The company is led by Trump chum David Ellison. Their new season premieres on Wednesday on Comedy Central. Google and Apple changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America...
• The Smithsonian Institution's top leader, Lonnie Bunch, announced he'll step down from that role by year's end. Trump has been pushing the organization to rewrite history and threatened to withhold federal funding if it didn't. Bunch denied his decision had anything to do with Trump and said he's been wanting to retire for years. But he also told them: "I may be going away, but I'm still going to be a pain in the ass to some people," The Atlantic reports.
• Further escalating tensions with our neighbor Canada, the US announced a ban on some alcohol and dairy products and some motorcycles from Canada, effective September 29. The US also added more Canadian goods to its list of tariffed products, on top of the $20 billion in goods that Trump tariffed earlier this year. Canada matched the tariffs on US goods. The New York Times AP Axios
• Under pressure from the Trump administration, the American Bar Association officially removed a requirement that law schools commit to diversity and equity in their student bodies and faculties in order to receive accreditation, The New York Times reports. Those policies have been in place since 1980. More from Inside Higher Ed.
• Weeks after asking the Supreme Court to let it immediately terminate any transgender troops in the military, the government is now telling its military leaders to comb through medical records to identify anyone else who may identify as transgender, Federal News Network reports.
  • “Five sources, including two transgender service members facing separation after their gender dysphoria-related diagnoses were flagged to their commands, described what they called a 'witch hunt' for honorably serving troops. Three were granted anonymity because they fear retaliation. Documents obtained by Federal News Network indicate that, in some cases, the information is coming from the Pentagon's highest echelon."
• In a rare case, the DOJ charged ICE officer Christian Castro for allegedly lying to investigators about a January 2025 incident in Minneapolis during which he allegedly shot a Venezuelan man, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, in the leg. The victim’s lawyers say the charges don’t go far enough, The Washington Post reports. Official indictment here.
  • Since the shooting happened in Minnesota, Castro could face state charges, but Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott refused to extradite Castro, who has been released from jail, the Post reports here.
• Trump gifted $45,000 in cash — roughly 30% of their yearly salary — to at least three young aides, including Natalie Harp — also known as the "human printer", The Washington Post reports.

• The number of women who have died from ectopic pregnancies has doubled in the last five years, ProPublica reports. "To treat an ectopic pregnancy, which is almost never viable, doctors must terminate it. But lawsuits and federal complaints have alleged that some medical providers are hesitating or flat-out refusing to do that in states where they face criminal penalties for performing an abortion. Patients described their terror."
• European law enforcement officials investigating Jeffrey Epstein's ties to people in their countries say the DOJ has not responded to their requests for "mutual legal assistance," which would give them access to evidence, The Washington Post reports. Officials in Poland, Latvia, Norway and the UK all have open investigations. Some people familiar with the office responsible for working with them, known as the Office of International Affairs, say it is kind of a hot mess, with high turnover and lengthy wait times.
• HHS Secretary RFK Jr. launched a podcast and… cooking show, where he cooks inexpensive meals with different chefs. It's getting mixed reviews…
• Surprise, surprise… The contractor — Atlantic Industrial Coatings — hired by the Trump administration in a no-bid, rushed process admits that it screwed up the Reflecting Pool renovation, The New York Times reports, citing previously undisclosed government documents.
• Trump ally Joe diGenova who was hired to use government resources to investigate people Trump doesn't like abruptly resigned this week, ABC News reports. He told The New York Post: "If you want indictments where there's no evidence, you have an ethical problem."
• Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff has made more than $250 million during his time as a government employee, The New York Times reports. Witkoff owns a crypto business, known as World Liberty Financial, with the Trump family. "An investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates bought nearly half of the company last year, a transaction that blurred the line between foreign policy and private enterprise and enriched Mr. Witkoff's family and Mr. Trump's. Mr. Witkoff's son, Zach Witkoff, who serves as World Liberty's chief executive, also helped arrange a partnership between the company and Pakistan. Those deals coincided with the elder Mr. Witkoff serving as special envoy, a diplomatic role that involves peace talks in the Middle East."

• After 24 years, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is ending his ABC show in May 2027, Page Six reports. One source said his contract was not extended.
• A nonpartisan commission tasked with investigating House members and their staff recommended no further action against Rep. Ilhan Omar who had been referred to the commission after it flagged a significant increase in her financial holdings — an increase Trump implied was proof she was profiting from a welfare fraud scheme in her state. Turns out, it was an error, The WSJ reports.
• Remember last week I told you that the Trump administration spent taxpayer dollars on arcade.gov, a video game website that had MAGA-friendly games, including one that allows users to build border walls using Tetris-like blocks? Well, they took that game, known as "Build the Wall," down after The Tetris Company threatened them with a copyright-infringement lawsuit. "The Tetris Company was not involved in the creation of 'Build the Wall,'" the company said in a statement, adding that it takes "copyright infringement very seriously," The Hill reports.
• The AP says it will keep calling Lake Ontario by its given name and not "Lake America," The Hill reports.

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