El-Sayed Wants to Mend Ties With Jewish Democrats, but Some Are Still Not Impressed

© Emily Elconin for The New York Times


© Emily Elconin for The New York Times


© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Olympic champion targets third Games in LA
Michael Jordan narrates announcement video
Chiles joins Lee and Carey on comeback trail
Jordan Chiles is returning for a run at her third Olympics, announcing Wednesday she intends to compete in the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
Chiles shared her decision in a video narrated by basketball legend Michael Jordan.
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© Photograph: C Morgan Engel/NCAA Photos/Getty Images

© Photograph: C Morgan Engel/NCAA Photos/Getty Images

© Photograph: C Morgan Engel/NCAA Photos/Getty Images


© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times


© Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call, via Associated Press


© Nathan Frandino/Reuters


© Ellen Schmidt/Associated Press

The city’s police department and mayor warn the public to stay away from the Loring Park neighborhood nearby
Two people were killed and the suspect was dead after a shooting at an apartment building in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday afternoon, officials said.
One shooting victim died at the scene. A second died after arriving at Hennepin county medical center, a hospital spokesperson said.
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© Photograph: Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Stefani Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Black called on to comply with subpoenas and appear as required to clarify connections to convicted sex offender
More than a dozen survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse have called on the billionaire Leon Black to appear before the House oversight committee in order to clarify his connections to the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.
In a letter released on Wednesday, the survivors urged Black to comply with congressional subpoenas ahead of Thursday’s deposition before the House oversight committee.
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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Team circumvented salary cap rules to sign star
Owner Steve Ballmer lands one-year ban
The NBA has handed down one of the biggest punishments in the history of the league to the Los Angeles Clippers after finding that the franchise circumvented salary cap rules when it courted Kawhi Leonard as a free agent.
The league has stripped the team of five first-round draft picks, giving the team no natural pick in the draft from 2029 through 2033.
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© Photograph: Matt Slocum/AP

© Photograph: Matt Slocum/AP

© Photograph: Matt Slocum/AP

President’s order strips nearly 3m acres of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, sacred tribal sites, of safeguards
Patagonia, the outdoor clothing and gear company, has joined a lawsuit challenging Donald Trump’s decision to significantly reduce the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, removing protections from nearly 3m acres.
In July, the president approved the reduction of the sites by 90%, clearing the way to open the land to oil and gas companies. He argued in his proclamations that doing so would allow lands to be “put to a higher-priority use” and that they contained critical minerals important to “ resource independence …[and] national security”.
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© Photograph: George Frey/Getty Images

© Photograph: George Frey/Getty Images

Police officer who fatally shot unarmed 22-year-old Glenwood Pysher IV faces voluntary manslaughter charge
A Pennsylvania police officer was charged on Tuesday with voluntary manslaughter for last week’s fatal shooting of a college student who was looking for his friends late at night and went to the wrong house.
Police body-camera video reviewed by investigators showed the officer yelled: “Drop to the ground,” then: “Stop or I’ll ...”. Before he finished the sentence, he fired two shots at the man who was unarmed and had his hands in the air. He hit 22-year-old Glenwood Earl Pysher IV twice in the chest, killing him.
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© Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP

© Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP

© Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP


© Philip Cheung for The New York Times

New DoJ opinion says entire state government has duty to report, not just agencies responsible for welfare programs
The US Department of Justice has ordered states to expand how they report undocumented immigrants to the federal government, according to a legal opinion from Tuesday that reverses a policy that has been in place for nearly 30 years.
Under the new opinion, issued by the department’s office of legal counsel, any state that takes federal money through support schemes for low-income Americans, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI), must now report undocumented immigrants across its entire state government, not just through the specific welfare office that runs the program.
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© Photograph: Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images

© Photograph: Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images

© Photograph: Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images

President praises late queen and King Charles but says duke and duchess treated royal family ‘with great disrespect’
Donald Trump has weighed in on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s move back to Britain, declaring: “I’m happy about it.”
“I was not a fan,” the US president told reporters during a question-and-answer session after a press conference with travel executives on Wednesday. “I had a very good relationship with the queen, really good. I got to know her very well. A really good relationship with King Charles – I knew him as Prince Charles and King Charles. I’ve known him for a long time.”
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© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/Pool PA/AP

© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/Pool PA/AP

© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/Pool PA/AP

Vice-president says on evangelical podcast he would feel ‘not shocked if the antichrist was walking among us’
JD Vance has said he is “doing as much of God’s work as possible” and that he is OK “if that leads to the end times”, which he says “are coming”.
The US vice-president made the comments during a Monday podcast interview with Bryce Crawford, a 22-year-old evangelical host with over a million YouTube followers and videos featuring sensationalist headlines including “Preaching the gospel in Chicago’s deadliest neighborhood” and “Debating a ‘gay’ pastor”.
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© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images


© Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

Senatobia, where white officer shot and killed Kohen Wiley, terminates chief who reportedly used racist slurs in texts
Late Tuesday, the city of Senatobia, Mississippi fired its police chief, Harold Vanderford, after it was reported that Vanderford regularly used racist slurs against Black people in his text messages. The town, which is about 40% Black, made national news earlier this year after a white officer fatally shot and killed Kohen Wiley, a one-year-old Black baby, while responding to a shoplifting call at Walmart. Officers fired into a vehicle, shooting the driver and killing the toddler, who was being held in his mother’s arms.
Though Vanderford submitted a resignation letter earlier on 1 September, the city’s board of aldermen unanimously voted to reject it and to terminate the officer instead. Vanderford’s firing came just under a week after the city wrote in a statement that, despite the messages, he would “continue to serve the City with the confidence that was placed in him at the time that he was appointed as Chief”.
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© Photograph: Senatobia Police Department via Facebook

© Photograph: Senatobia Police Department via Facebook

© Photograph: Senatobia Police Department via Facebook

Tech company submits to controversial Trump order to rename body of water amid US trade spat with Canada
Apple has renamed Lake Ontario as “Lake America” for US users of its Maps app, after an executive order from Donald Trump to change the name of the Great Lake amid his trade spat with Canada.
The Apple Maps app now displays the controversial new name for the lake, which sits between New York state and the Canadian province of Ontario, for users in the US. Apple users outside the country will still see the Lake Ontario name.
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© Composite: The Washington Post/ABACA/Shutterstock, Apple Maps

© Composite: The Washington Post/ABACA/Shutterstock, Apple Maps

© Composite: The Washington Post/ABACA/Shutterstock, Apple Maps


© Francis Chung/POLITICO, via Associated Press


© Valerie Plesch for The New York Times

Experts have expressed deep concerns that the practice runs afoul of the fourth amendment’s right to privacy
Federal prosecutors have declined to say whether they secretly obtained phone records for the journalist Don Lemon using an unusual administrative summons, his lawyers said in a Monday court filing, highlighting concern about a controversial legal authority the government has claimed to gather information as it charged Lemon and dozens of others with civil rights crimes in connection to a January protest at a church in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
In January, officials served Verizon with an administrative summons for a log of Lemon’s phone records between 19 December and 20 January. The subpoena did not come from a grand jury, as is typical in criminal investigations, and also was not a court-approved search warrant. Instead, it was a unilateral request from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which said it was requesting the information under 19 USC 1509 – an obscure law that gives the department power to investigate records related to customs issues. Experts say the government is abusing that authority to gather records on journalists, activists, unions, non-profits and online critics, and have expressed deep concerns that the practice runs afoul of the fourth amendment’s right to privacy.
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© Photograph: Paras Griffin/Getty Images

© Photograph: Paras Griffin/Getty Images

© Photograph: Paras Griffin/Getty Images

Paul Miller, an openly racist fighter, derided Ben Azoulay, and a spectator was ejected for waving a swastika flag
Democrats in Florida have condemned a professional mixed martial arts event in Orlando at which an openly racist fighter derided his beaten opponent as “a short little fucking Jew prick”, and a spectator was ejected for waving a giant swastika flag.
Anna Eskamani, a Democratic state representative running to become the city’s mayor, said Saturday’s event, and the assertion by city officials that they were compelled to host it, were unacceptable.
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© Photograph: James Gilbert/Getty Images

© Photograph: James Gilbert/Getty Images

© Photograph: James Gilbert/Getty Images


© Ted Richardson/Associated Press

Jury to return for more deliberations on Thursday in case of mother accused of murdering her three children
The jury in the Lindsay Clancy trial was dismissed for the evening on Wednesday without reaching a verdict, after nearly 30 hours of deliberations over five days.
Addressing the 12-member jury – made up of nine women and three men – Judge William Sullivan said: “I know it’s been a long day.”
In the US, the national maternal mental health hotline is 1-833-852-6262. In the UK, the Pandas foundation offers support via WhatsApp on 07903 508334. In Australia, the national maternal and perinatal mental health hotline is 1300 726 306
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© Photograph: Greg Derr/Reuters

© Photograph: Greg Derr/Reuters

© Photograph: Greg Derr/Reuters

Various laws and 250 years of tradition prevent the likeness of living people from appearing on currency. Donald Trump and Scott Bessent don’t want you to worry about that
This was originally published in This Week in Trumpland. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday
Two hallmarks of Donald Trump’s second-term: the president’s enthusiasm for putting his name and face on things, and his cavalier approach to established law.
Today the president is once again combining both those interests, as the government releases a $1 coin bearing his image, an item of currency that scholars say should be illegal, but which is happening anyway. How many times have you heard that in the last 18 months?
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© Photograph: Department of Treasury/United States Mint/Reuters

© Photograph: Department of Treasury/United States Mint/Reuters

© Photograph: Department of Treasury/United States Mint/Reuters


© Yuki Iwamura/Associated Press

While leaders focused on Hasan Piker, two of the party’s more conservative members salvaged a GOP measure that was poised to fail
House Democratic leaders have spent the past few weeks waging a bitter campaign against their own left flank over a leftwing streamer. On Tuesday, it was the party’s center-right who blindsided them.
Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, announced late on Tuesday that he had asked the Democratic caucus’s committee on caucus rules to consider punishing the retiring Jared Golden of Maine and Blue Dog Coalition leader Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington after the pair sided with Republicans on a procedural vote that had appeared doomed.
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© Composite: AP, Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Composite: AP, Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Composite: AP, Bloomberg via Getty Images

Top medical groups band together to ease confusion from Trump administration’s changing immunization advice
Leading US medical groups are urging people to get updated flu and Covid-19 vaccinations this fall, banding together on Wednesday to issue shot guidelines – and highlight the science behind them – saying they hope to ease confusion caused by the Trump administration’s changing advice.
Flu vaccinations are beginning and the latest coronavirus shots are starting to arrive after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved this year’s updated versions last week. Winter also brings another vaccine-preventable risk called RSV.
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© Photograph: Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

© Photograph: Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

© Photograph: Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Climate experts warn that US Kalshi and Polymarket users are ‘gamifying disasters’ as they bet on events like heatwaves and daily temperatures
Online prediction markets, saturated by money staked on sport, crypto and politics, have now set their sights on a promising new area of growth: betting on the future livability of the planet itself.
The rise of gamified predictions on the unfolding climate crisis, and shorter-term weather forecasts, has been underscored by a new deal that allows Kalshi, a leading online financial exchange, to access data from the Weather Company, owner of the Weather Channel, to verify weather-related betting outcomes.
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© Photograph: Richard Levine/Alamy

© Photograph: Richard Levine/Alamy

© Photograph: Richard Levine/Alamy

US defense secretary faces backlash for attempting to mock Canada’s armed forces amid trade war
A social media post by Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defense, body-shaming female members of a Canadian youth development program remained online on Wednesday despite a furious backlash on both sides of the border.
On Monday night, Hegseth posted on X a photograph of two people in uniform with a Canadian flag and the caption “this is real”, an apparent attempt at mocking the country’s armed forces amid the Trump administration’s trade spat with its northern neighbor.
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© Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Annabelle Gordon/AFP/Getty Images

Whether or not US president fits the definition of a Russian asset, his actions align closely with the Kremlin’s interests
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Could Donald Trump be a Russian asset? The headline on a review in the Guardian of my new book Betrayal has provoked heated international debate. Written by the historian Lawrence Freedman, the piece generated thousands of comments from across Europe and beyond on social media. Many people responded with a single word: “Duh!”
Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin is the biggest mystery in international politics. In 2017 I wrote a book called Collusion, which set out Moscow’s operation to support and cultivate Trump, going back decades. The US president, of course, denies links with Russia. But in his second term, his behaviour towards Putin has been as weird and perplexing as during his first.
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© Photograph: Thilo Schmülgen/Reuters

© Photograph: Thilo Schmülgen/Reuters

© Photograph: Thilo Schmülgen/Reuters

‘Where the wealthiest country in the world allocates money has always been a question of political will over political way’
The United States once led most other nations on resettling refugees from all over the world. But in the fiscal year 2025- 2026, except for three people from Afghanistan, all of the 10,258 people admitted through resettlement were white South Africans.
But admitting en masse the beneficiaries of South African apartheid, while simultaneously cancelling temporary protected status (TPS) for 350,000 Haitians, and making a spectacle of detaining and shackling them, is just the tip of the racist iceberg: the Trump administration is reportedly using this moment to double the initial resettlement support that refugees receive to $4,500 per person.
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© Photograph: Kim Ludbrook/EPA

© Photograph: Kim Ludbrook/EPA

© Photograph: Kim Ludbrook/EPA


© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

Tennis updates from Flushing Meadows, New York
Email Ella and follow us on TikTok and Bluesky
And Nakashima breaks too – he’s hitting it hard off both wings and I wonder if he’s in the process of finding a new level. The first few times I watched him, I thought he had a bit of something and, real talk, I thought he’d be better by now than he is. But I really like what I’m seeing from him and, as we know, progress isn’t always linear.
It’s a good start for Medvedev, Gorzy – who saved five match points in round one – tamely ceding serve to 15.
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© Photograph: Robert Deutsch/IMAGN IMAGES/Reuters

© Photograph: Robert Deutsch/IMAGN IMAGES/Reuters

© Photograph: Robert Deutsch/IMAGN IMAGES/Reuters


© Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times

Providers like Project:Camp offer emergency education and care to families in Washington state as climate change brings more destructive weather
One week after evacuating from the wildfires that devastated parts of this eastern Washington city, Mareesha Backman handed over her youngest son to a stranger and took her first deep breath of relief.
Spokane public schools was hosting what has become a growing part of disaster response: a day camp for children of survivors. Backman showed up that first day feeling “stunned,” she said: hot, poorly showered and underslept. Thanks to the camp’s volunteers, she was able to go to a doctor’s appointment, run errands and simply sit in the air-conditioned quiet of a friend’s home.
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© Photograph: Anya Kamenetz for The Hechinger Report

© Photograph: Anya Kamenetz for The Hechinger Report

© Photograph: Anya Kamenetz for The Hechinger Report


© Pool photo by Greg Derr

New law requires cosmetology classes to give instruction on all hair types from the kinkiest to the straightest
As of 1 September, a new law in New York state requires hairdressers studying cosmetology to be trained to work with all hair types.
“This is about equal access to service,” assembly member Michaelle Solages, who sponsored the law, said in a statement earlier this year. “No New Yorker should ever walk into a salon and be turned away or receive substandard care because of their hair texture. Now, with the adoption of this legislation, they won’t have to.”
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© Photograph: RoGina Montgomery/Getty Images

© Photograph: RoGina Montgomery/Getty Images

© Photograph: RoGina Montgomery/Getty Images

US Central Command has released footage that purportedly shows missile and drone strikes being fired at Iranian military targets. Footage of some of the aftermath of the US attacks was shared on social media, showing shrapnel damage on a home in Sirik, southern Iran, where a wedding celebration was taking place. Since publication of this video, Iranian state media has revised the death toll to four people. Iran retaliated shortly afterwards, with video shared by Iranian media said to show missiles being fired towards Jordan.
A US Central Command spokesperson said the US was aware of reports of civilian casualties, but that the 'US military never targets civilians, unlike the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps]'
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© Photograph: Reuters

© Photograph: Reuters

© Photograph: Reuters

Woman from Reno was swimming near Hidden beach when river otter attacked her, Tahoe’s second incident in a month
A swimmer at Lake Tahoe in Nevada was bitten by a river otter and needed to get 38 stitches for her wounds as well as rabies shots, local media have reported.
Lynnette Bellin from Reno was swimming near Hidden beach on the Nevada side of the popular tourist attraction on Sunday when she was attacked by the creature.
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© Photograph: Robin Loznak/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Robin Loznak/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Robin Loznak/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

US energy department warns of potential for outages in PJM Interconnection, serving 67 million from DC to Chicago
The risk of power outages is expected to escalate across a broad swath of the United States on Wednesday as intense heat will test the capacity of electricity supplies serving millions of homes and businesses from the midwest through the mid-Atlantic.
The US Department of Energy warned of the potential for heightened blackout risks in the PJM Interconnection, the largest US electric grid, which serves 67 million people in a territory stretching from Washington DC to Chicago.
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© Photograph: Nam Y Huh/AP

© Photograph: Nam Y Huh/AP

© Photograph: Nam Y Huh/AP

The US president’s need to assert dominance is igniting patriotism abroad and a backlash at home
What do bullies do when someone stands up to their bullying and punches them in the face? They look for someone weaker to bully who won’t punch back.
Presumably that’s why Donald Trump has now taken on Canada, after Iran punched back so hard in the cage match the US president began more than six months ago as to leave him humiliated and baffled.
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© Photograph: Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images

Designers are rethinking one of New York City’s most polluted sites with climate adaptation and community benefits
The Guardian receives support for visual climate coverage from the Outrider Foundation. The Guardian’s coverage is editorially independent
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© Photograph: Thalia Juarez/The Guardian

© Photograph: Thalia Juarez/The Guardian

© Photograph: Thalia Juarez/The Guardian

Rapper’s supporters reflect on ‘astonishing’ events leading to Duane Davis being found guilty over 1996 fatal shooting
A criminal conviction this week in the murder of Tupac Shakur, the first since the rapper was gunned down in 1996, sent shockwaves through his sea of fans who have waited three decades for answers.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former California gang leader, was found guilty of murder on Monday for the role he played in orchestrating the fatal shooting of Shakur.
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© Photograph: Bob Berg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bob Berg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bob Berg/Getty Images

Shore leave in Pattaya, known for its red light district, comes after reports of deteriorating living conditions onboard the vessel during record stint
At Pattaya’s Hard Rock Cafe and hotel, the city’s mayor and police officials, along with women in traditional Thai dress, wait to greet the sailors who are arriving in civilian clothes, bags slung over their shoulders, off the buses.
The USS Abraham Lincoln’s crew of 5,000 have not been on shore for nearly nine months, a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea.
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© Photograph: Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters

© Photograph: Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters

© Photograph: Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters

Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on $20bn in Canadian goods and Canada threatened retaliatory tariffs starting 8 September
As tensions flare in the mideast with American military forces resuming strikes on Iran, Donald Trump has taken to social media to discuss his ballroom project.
“We have hundreds of happy construction workers in D.C. busily doing their job building the finest Ballroom/Military complex anywhere in the World,” Trump said in a truth social post Wednesday morning. “There is nothing like it, and never will be! It was a long, hard, fight in the Court System, but the winner is, as always under ‘TRUMP,’ the U.S.A.”
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© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

Leading Democrat accuses secretary of defense of causing ‘lasting harm’ to US forces. Plus, the curious case of the 5,500 missing sheep
Good morning. The US has launched more airstrikes on Iranian targets, prompting counterstrikes by Tehran targeting American interests in Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq. The six-month conflict had shifted into an economic standoff before this weekend’s strikes, but recent promises by both sides to respond to further attacks have highlighted how quickly the conflict could spill back into military action.
The Iranian Red Crescent said four people, including a child, were killed and more than 50 were injured when shrapnel from a US missile attack hit a home where a wedding celebration was taking place in the city of Kuhestak. The US central command spokesperson Capt Tim Hawkins said: “The US military never targets civilians.”
Why are there concerns about US military leadership? A senior Democrat accused Pete Hegseth of having “hollowed out” the army’s senior ranks after its top civilian leader, Daniel Driscoll, resigned. Senator Jack Reed said: “It is far past time for Trump to recognize the lasting harm Pete Hegseth is inflicting on the Department of Defense … cultivating a culture where dissent is punished and competence is secondary to personal allegiance.”
How do officials appear to have profited from AI stocks? Emil Michael, a Pentagon official who is overseeing military artificial intelligence policy, reaped profits this year of up to $24m by selling his private investment in Elon Musk’s AI company. He has now sold his holdings in another AI company for between $5m and $25m, according to records seen by the Guardian.
What has a whistleblower identified as a risk to mail-in ballots? A new system to screen millions of mail-in ballots for the midterms was thrown together so hastily, and tested so little, that a single scanning glitch could mean entire batches of ballots are turned away, a whistleblower has told Congress.
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© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images