September 20-26, 2026
NEWS DIGEST
As Trump’s approval rating craters to a new low, media organizations seem to have become more willing to point out the naked corruption and grift in the administration. Anne Applebaum’s long article linked here doesn’t contain any surprises, but is overwhelming in detailing the scope of the problem. Meanwhile Trump, aided by a partisan Supreme Court, is trying every trick in the book to disenfranchise citizens who might vote against him in the midterms. Your action item for this week - Get your ballot ready, and talk to your friends and family about making sure to vote. Your vote has never been more valuable.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz remain in crisis mode: ran offered a proposal aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending the fighting, but Trump said Saturday that he had rejected it. Iranian officials say diplomacy is still possible, and mediators say they have not necessarily received a formal U.S. rejection. REUTERS
A federal judge blocks Trump's ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico: Trump barred the three news organizations from the White House; they sued, and a federal judge temporarily ordered their access restored. The administration complied with the order, although disputes over presidential press access continue. The episode has become a significant First Amendment and press-freedom case. REUTERS
Trump and Xi hold a major Washington summit: Chinese President Xi Jinping made a state visit to Washington this week. The U.S. and China subsequently announced tariff reductions covering about $30 billion in goods, a new dialogue on artificial intelligence, a trade council, and continued talks on economic and security issues. The agreements ease some tensions but leave many of the countries' larger disputes unresolved. REUTERS
Supreme Court allows Trump administration to use expanded database for potential voter purges: The Supreme Court on Friday permitted the Trump administration to use an expanded federal database containing citizenship information, as the president encourages states to purge people from voter rolls. The justices, divided 6-3 on ideological lines with conservatives in the majority, granted an emergency request filed by the government after lower courts ruled that the Trump administration’s changes to the database were likely unlawful. Critics have said the data is unreliable and could lead to U.S. citizens being kicked off the voter rolls. NBC
Israel received repeated warnings before October 7 attack: A report published by The Atlantic says that Israel received repeated warnings about escalating activity by Hamas in the weeks before the October 7, 2023 attack, including a highly unusual visit to Israel by Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.
CORRUPTION ALERT
The Trump Administration Is Trying to Get Musk and X Out of a $137 Million EU Fine: The European Union's executive arm said Friday it's prepared to defend a 120 million euro ($137 million US) fine against the social media platform X after the U.S. government threw its support behind a legal effort by Elon Musk this week to have the case dismissed. CBC
Trump reveals millions of dollars' worth of share deals in big tech and AI: US President Donald Trump has disclosed millions of dollars' worth of stock market trades made during July, including in firms from Elon Musk's SpaceX to tech and AI giants such as Microsoft. According to official documents, between $6.5m (£4.8m) and $31m worth of stock in Microsoft was sold on behalf of Trump, while they show purchases of between $165,000 and $400,000. Across more than 1,000 trades, shares were bought and sold in AI company Nvidia and software firm Palantir, a contractor with the US defense department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the filing shows. BBC
‘I am the code’: Trump clashed with ballroom architect over safety issues: The Washington Post reports that James McCrery II, the first architect on the White House ballroom project who resigned in October 2025, had repeatedly clashed with President Trump over building safety, elevating scrutiny on a high-cost renovation. According to the report, McCrery warned that early designs lacked adequate emergency exit routes and fire-containment measures to meet building safety codes. Sources said Trump dismissed the concerns, saying "I am the code," and maintained codes do not apply to White House construction.
MAGA Is Making the World Safe for Corruption: Anne Applebaum argues that Trump’s “America First” foreign policy is not isolationist at all, but a new kind of transactional foreign policy in which U.S. power, MAGA ideology, private business interests, and personal political relationships increasingly overlap. A deeply reported and important piece that deserves to be read in full. ATLANTIC
The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way: In 2024, the FBI sought to launch a sweeping pay-to-play investigation examining interactions between Sen. Susan Collins and a top donor, records and emails show. The donor, an ex-defense contractor, told agents his company won millions in federal contracts by bankrolling campaigns of powerful politicians. After Donald Trump returned to office, the investigation died, a casualty of his purge of the FBI. Its closure shut a potential window into how Washington works. PRO PUBLICA
SCIENCE, HEALTH, AND SAFETY
How the U.S. and Russia weakened a global effort to regulate killer AI - The Washington Post: The United States and Russia played leading roles in removing key clauses for the safe operation of artificial intelligence (AI) weapons from a United Nations proposal on lethal autonomous weapons (LAWs), the Washington Post reported. According to the report, which cited anonymous sources, diplomats from the U.S. and Russia intensively revised the text during the final 15 hours of UN negotiations held in Geneva, Switzerland, earlier this month, deleting phrases requiring AI weapon systems to be operated in a "predictable and reliable" manner.
‘Zombified’ C.D.C., Hobbled by Cuts, Struggles to Fulfill Scientific Mission: The agency has lost its independence and nearly a third of its staff, as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and associates have tightened control. Interviews with more than 30 current and former employees reveal the agency is now tightly controlled by Mr. Kennedy and his associates, and its scientists are finding it increasingly difficult to do their jobs effectively. NYT
Trump administration says developers, loggers can kill endangered species The Trump administration’s top wildlife official issued a directive last week that expands a recent rollback of endangered species protections much further than the feds had told the public .Individuals and industries may kill endangered animals in the course of logging projects, developments and other activities, it said — so long as the activity’s purpose isn’t killing species. KENTUCKY LANTERN
The US military had a close call after using AI to generate an intelligence report: The intelligence report, circulated across the US military this spring in the midst of the war with Iran, immediately set off alarm bells: A Chinese ship in the Middle East was transporting components of a nuclear weapons program. It was only just before the planned operation that officials dug deeper into the report put together by a special operations command analyst and found it had been generated with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) — and that a chatbot the analyst had used inaccurately identified the material the ship was carrying. CNN was not able to learn what the misidentified cargo was. lower-income Americans, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled Friday. CNN
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