Newsbreak
- A fast-growing wildfire spread
from the Sierra foothills toward the center of Reno early Sunday, as
approximately 90,000 residents were urged to evacuate. The fire has been
burning across a rugged section of the Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest, where
Peavine Mountain is ringed by homes and businesses on the Nevada side of the
California state line, and some of these homes have been consumed by the
flames.
August 23, 2026
Wildfires
Polls
The Hill - Only 9 percent of Americans younger than 30 have a “very positive” view of capitalism, according to a new CBS/YouGov poll. That shows a stark generation between Generation Z and older generations.
Thirty-three percent of people older than 65, or those in
the baby boomer generation, said they have a very positive view of capitalism,
while 23 percent of people aged 45-64, a group that includes Generation Xers
and older millennials, view capitalism very positively.
Millennials in the 30-44 age range were closer to Gen Z,
with just 15 percent saying they had a very positive view of capitalism.
Climate
Washington
Post - Some of the most extreme weather in the United
States this summer have been driven by an invisible force pooling in the skies
above: water vapor.
Although recent destructive
floods in Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New York, Texas, West
Virginia and many other states may seem geographically disconnected, they share
a link to something happening thousands of miles away, in a remote stretch of
the tropical Pacific Ocean.
That’s where the combination of a record-breaking
El Niño, a marine
heat wave and the ocean-warming tailwind from climate change have sent
much more moisture into the atmosphere than normal. So far this summer, total
atmospheric moisture levels have been about 5 to 15 percent above average in
the Pacific and across much of the U.S.
An analysis by The Washington Post shows that since June,
this extra moisture, transported by winds, has spilled into the contiguous
United States, helping to fuel record-breaking rainfall in parts of 44 out of
48 states, covering about 90,000 square miles.
Trump regime throwing doubt on integrity of US elections
The Guardian
- A series of moves by Donald Trump’s administration to sow doubt in the
integrity of US elections have intensified concern among voting experts – and
sparked hope among election deniers – that it could declare a national
emergency.
The White House and US federal
agencies have released a string of documents this summer – including disputed
analyses of alleged voting by noncitzens and historical intelligence memos –
stoking expectations that the US president could move to exert greater control
over November’s US midterm elections.
Trump used a primetime television
address in July to claim – again – that US elections were vulnerable to foreign
manipulation, and repeat the lie that the 2020 presidential election, which he
lost to Joe Biden, was stolen.
Trump’s speech prompted Steve
Bannon, his former political strategist, to predict the US president will
declare a state of emergency on national security grounds to “protect”
elections.
“Take your No 2 pencil out,”
Bannon, a rightwing commentator, said on his War Room video podcast on 29 July.
“It’s coming. It’s coming. Just block the last week of August out. It’s
coming.”
While Trump and his allies could
try to use a national emergency declaration to delegitimize results of
November’s results, experts say such a declaration would not supersede the
constitutional restrictions on executive power on election administration. No
president has ever attempted to invoke an emergency to assert control over
voting.
Asked earlier this month by Wayne
Allyn Root, a rightwing broadcaster, if he would “declare a national security
emergency for elections”, Trump notably did not shoot down the idea.
“Let me just say, stranger things
have happened, OK?” the president told Real America’s Voice, a rightwing cable
channel. “I’ll leave it at that.”
MS NOW - In July, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin claimed that the Trump administration had found nearly 16,000 “potential” noncitizens registered to vote in Nevada, write Vaughn Hillyard and Laura Barrón-López. But senior officials told election administrators last week that they had identified only 185 potential noncitizens on the voter rolls so far, according to emails and a video recording obtained by MS NOW. Election administrators in multiple states have said they are concerned that the Trump administration will use claims about noncitizen voters to interfere with the midterms. Read more.
Just a reminder
Sam Smith -
The Supreme Court will be considering whether Texas schools can require postings
of the Christian ten commandments. While America is heavily Christian more than
ten percent of its citizens are Jews, Muslim, atheists, agnostics or some other
belief system. One of the great things
about being an American is that you don’t have to belong to the most popular religion.
The Trump ballroom
The
Congressional Insider - President
Trump insists his new White House ballroom will cost taxpayers “not one dime,”
but government watchdogs and even a Republican senator say public money is
already flowing into the project. Trump has repeatedly promised the ballroom
will be funded entirely by private donors, not taxpayers.
A House Democratic report says tens of millions in taxpayer dollars have already gone toward construction. The project’s price tag has jumped from an early $100 million estimate to as much as $600 million. Republican Senator Rick Scott has questioned why any taxpayer money would be needed if private funding exists. A contract shielding donor names from public disclosure was only revealed after a lawsuit.
The Kennedy Center
NPR
- In a status report submitted late
Tuesday to a federal court, the Kennedy Center outlined its plans to put
President Trump's name back on the arts complex. The signage proposed by the
center's board would eventually read: "The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center
for the Performing Arts, Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump,
Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund." The last line would be added
only if the fund reaches $100 million in donations. Additionally, the board is
seeking to rename the physical grounds of the arts center "President
Donald J. Trump Plaza." The Kennedy Center said it would not try to add
Trump's name back on the building before Sept. 8.
In its filing, the center also
argued that the much-discussed tarp that has been covering the signage at the
complex's front entrance is a "necessary element of the ongoing
construction activities," and is there in part to protect the marble paneling
during the renovation.
…. The status report was filed
with Judge Christopher R. Cooper, the federal judge presiding over the lawsuit
between the Kennedy Center and Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex-officio member
of its board. In the same filing, Beatty's lawyers urged Cooper to make a
ruling before Sept. 8, writing: "There is thus every reason to believe
that Defendants will attempt to effectuate some or part of this latest unlawful
resolution at the earliest opportunity after Sept. 8. Moreover, Plaintiff is
concerned that Defendants already may have damaged the historic marble that
lines the facade with their original desecration of the Center's facade by
attaching President Trump's name above President Kennedy's."
Artificial Intelligence
Tech
Crunch - Over one-third of web pages published after the release of
ChatGPT show signs of being written by AI, according to a new study from Pew
Research released on Thursday. The report corroborates other studies that
detail how much of the web’s newer web pages are now either written by or
“substantially edited” by AI, the firm says.
….To compile the report, Pew said
it used the Common Crawl web archive to collect nearly half a million
English-language web pages from the past five or so years, starting a couple of
years before ChatGPT’s November 2022 release. Pew then used Open Pangram’s
technology to detect how many were likely written or heavily edited by AI.
In a random sample of 10,000 web
pages collected in July 2026, around 10% showed “significant signs of AI
authorship,” Pew said. However, Pew pointed out that a random sample like this
would inevitably include older web pages — ones published before AI writing
tools even existed, and therefore couldn’t have been AI written.
Pew
Research - Today, 52% of
Americans say they are more concerned than excited about the increased use of
AI in daily life – up from 37% in 2021. Another 9% are more excited than
concerned and 37% say they’re equally excited and concerned, according to a Pew
Research Center survey conducted June 22-28, 2026. Concern about AI is up among younger and
older Americans alike since we first asked this question in 2021. But while the
rise was mainly in the first two years for Americans ages 30 and older, concern
continues to climb for adults under 30 – whose skepticism of AI has made
headlines in recent months.
August 22, 2026
Meanwhile. . .
Deep
State Tribunal - The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the
Supreme Court to strike down Texas’s Ten Commandments classroom law after a
near-split appeals court said the law is constitutional…
Newsworthy
News - Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said the United States should
abolish the Electoral College and elect presidents by direct popular vote,
pressing a change that would rewrite how the nation chooses its leader….He
argues every vote would count the same and campaigns would not hinge on a few
states. Defenders say the Electoral College protects smaller states and rural
voices. Changing the system would require a United States constitutional
amendment…
Trump trying to weaken American Bar Association
New
Republic - President Trump is trying to take away the American Bar
Association’s ability to accredit law schools due to its being too woke.
The ABA is the leading accreditor for almost 200 law schools
in the United States. Without its accreditation, a school’s graduates may not
qualify to take the bar exam, and the school itself may not qualify for federal
funding—two massive implications. Now the Education Department has published a
500-page report recommending the removal of that long-standing power because it
believes the ABA is trying to “inject their own political preferences, their
own ideologies into the work that they do.”
“We have said many times that accreditation, in general,
operates like a cartel,” assistant Secretary of Education David Barker said to
The Wall Street Journal. “When there’s no competition, accreditors feel free to
inject their own political preferences, their own ideologies into the work that
they do.”
The Education Department’s recommendation is not final and
will take some months to be adjudicated, but the right is already celebrating.
Trump's ballroom scheme can continue
Robert B, Hubbell - John Roberts did Trump another favor by
issuing an administrative stay of a lower court injunction against Trump’s
ballroom construction. The net effect is that the construction can continue
while the Supreme Court decides Trump’s emergency application. T.he fact that Roberts acted alone in granting
the stay suggests that it does not reflect the views of a majority of the
Court. When a single justice is presented with an emergency application for a
stay, the justice can either act alone or refer it to the full Court for a vote
on the stay
Texas likes Trump and solar power
New
Republic - Turning coal mines into solar farms sounds so smart, it’s
almost hard to believe that it’s happening in the United States under President
Trump. But late last month, construction began in Texas on a 1.2 gigawatt solar
farm that will be one of the largest clean energy projects in the country and
the biggest solar project built on a brownfield site in North America. It will
start producing power a year from now, and will also include 1.6.
gigawatt-hours of battery storage.
This $1.7 billion project is
groundbreaking, as is another one forthcoming in the same state: The world’s
largest carbon removal plant will open at the end of the year. There are
caveats in both cases. The surface coal mine and adjacent coal-fired power
plant in Bremond, which sits between Dallas and Houston, will continue
operating alongside the new solar farm. And many environmental experts are
skeptical of carbon removal as a realistic solution to the climate crisis.
But there’s no doubting this
much: Texas is a national leader in renewable energy, and has been for decades.
It’s first in wind power—by a long shot—and second in solar power generation,
behind only California. It generates enough power from solar to power the
equivalent of half the homes in the state.
In its enthusiasm for wind power,
Texas, which Trump won even more convincingly in 2024 than he did in 2016 and
2020, couldn’t be more at odds with the president. He has had a weird vendetta
against wind power ever since the early 2010s, when a wind farm was built near
one of his golf courses in Scotland—ruining the view, in his opinion. He claims
that all renewable energy is part of the Democrats’ “Green New Scam,” and he’s
wildly exaggerated the impact of wind turbines on whales and birds.
Is lettuce safe to eat?
NY
Times - It has been a summer of food-borne illness in the United
States. Since May 1, tens of thousands of people have been sickened by
cyclospora after eating contaminated iceberg lettuce. And in August, a
salmonella outbreak associated with jalapeños affected at least 345 people in
27 states.
In a CBS News poll conducted in
late July, 40 percent of the nearly 2,200 U.S. adults surveyed said they were
eating less produce because of the cyclospora outbreak, and almost half said
they had little to no confidence in the Food and Drug Administration to address
it.
Kyle Diamantas, the acting
commissioner of the F.D.A., said in a CNBC segment on Monday that the food
supply was safe and that "Americans should feel confident in eating fresh
produce, including leafy greens."
We asked experts to weigh in, and to clarify the risks of eating the various foods implicated in recent outbreak. RESPONSE
Canadian tariff talks collapse
The
Guardian - The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, has promised to
match US tariffs “dollar for dollar” after the two sides failed to agree a
trade deal by the deadline of midnight on Friday.
The trade row is the biggest
rupture in recent relations between Washington and one of its closest allies
and trading partners as Donald Trump’s bellicose foreign policy angered
officials in Ottawa.
The two sides appeared close to a
deal on Friday to lower tariffs on steel, aluminium and cars, but was scuttled
at the last minute. The two sides blamed each other for the collapse.
Canadian officials had worked
hard in good faith but “last-minute changes in the US proposed terms were
unfair, uneconomic and called into question the reliability of any deal”,
Carney said in a statement.
US officials accused Canada of
collapsing the deal by seeking additional concessions at the last minute. Carney recalled his negotiators as Canada
vowed to match Washington’s tough approach. No further talks are planned.
August 21, 2026
Oil prices
Bloomberg - Oil prices headed for
a substantial weekly advance as the US push
to isolate Iran raised the specter
of further
disruptions. Crude has rallied more than 50% this year as the US-Iran
war rages, with the two sides battling
over the Strait of Hormuz.
Polls
The
Hill - Only 9 percent of Americans younger than 30 have a “very
positive” view of capitalism, according to a new CBS/YouGov poll.
That shows a stark generation
between Generation Z and older generations.
Thirty-three percent of people
older than 65, or those in the baby boomer generation, said they have a very
positive view of capitalism, while 23 percent of people aged 45-64, a group
that includes Generation Xers and older millennials, view capitalism very
positively.
Millennials in the 30-44 age
range were closer to Gen Z, with just 15 percent saying they had a very
positive view of capitalism.
Forty-one percent of respondents
younger than 30 had a very negative or somewhat negative view of capitalism.
That compares with 27 percent of those 65 and older, 32 percent of those aged
45-64 and 37 percent of those aged 30-44.
Added bills for tenants
The Guardian - An investigation co-published by the Guardian and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, a journalism non-profit that supports stories about inequality and poverty in the US, has revealed a problem emerging nationwide: fees that are known as “ratio utility billing system” fees – or Rubs – which are charged on top of rent.
Rubs, unlike standard utility
bills, where tenants owe money to the utility company, are owed to the landlord
and often paid through a third-party billing company. Many leases that include
Rubs are written so tenants can be evicted for not paying utilities, even if
they have paid their rent.
For working-class and low-income
tenants like Constance Soule, an 81-year-old disabled Alzheimer’s patient,
falling behind on these utility charges can lead to eviction notices, Tracie
McMillan reports. “It just kept adding up,” Margot Jones, Soule’s sister, said.
Tenants in Los Angeles and
Seattle have launched “Rubs strikes”, refusing to pay utilities until landlords
agree to reduce charges that can approach $300 a month per apartment.
At least 13 lawsuits have challenged Rubs since the start of 2025 across five states – including a case in California that led to a nearly $500,000 settlement last fall with a national property manager. “Some California landlords have tried to get away with illegal rent increases by shifting utilities and other fees to tenants and pretending those new charges are not ‘rent’” under state law, Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, said when announcing the settlement. Efforts to limit or ban add-on utility fees are also gaining momentum across several cities.
Climate
Miami
Herald - Despite afternoon rain, South Florida will have to deal with
the heat again…. The heat advisory is in effect for Miami-Dade and Broward
counties from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday. “We’ll be cranking that air
conditioning,” Lissette Gonzalez, a meteorologist with Miami Herald news
partner CBS News Miami, said Friday morning. “And take your umbrella.” The
feels-like temperatures, which take into account humidity, will reach as high
as 107 degrees, according to the weather service. At 5 a.m., parts of South
Florida already felt like more than 90 degrees, when humidity is considered.
The afternoon high temperature will rise to 91, a few degrees cooler than the
past few days in South Florida. Wednesday’s high reached the mid-90s and
Tuesday hit 100 in Miami, which hadn’t happened since 1942.
Islamophobia’s Rise in Texas
NY Times - The promise to combat “radical Islam” has long been a part of Republican politics. The rhetoric has only intensified nationally, as Muslims like Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist mayor of New York City, and Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, won major races.
But politicians in Texas have
gone beyond words, turning the power of the state against some Muslim groups.
A major turning point arrived in
early 2025, after members of the East Plano Islamic Center unveiled plans for a
real estate development centered on a new mosque in farmland east of Dallas.
The opposition was immediate and intense.
State leaders, including Gov.
Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, have since opened investigations
into Muslim institutions across Texas. They’ve sought to block the real estate
development and investigate religious divorce counseling. Mr. Abbott threatened
to take state funding from Texas airports that provide ritual washing stations
for Muslim travelers, ordered the cancellation of a private water park party
celebrating a Muslim holiday and labeled the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, a national civil rights group, as a terrorist group — a step that
even the Trump administration has so far not taken.
Efforts by Republican state
leaders to restrict Islamic practice have coincided with a push to expand
Christianity’s place in public life. In June, Texas became the first state to
mandate Bible readings in public schools, where lawmakers had already required
prayer time and the posting of the Ten Commandments.
Supply of cattle hits 75 year low
The
Guardian - Tyson Foods, the largest meatpacking company in the US,
announced last week that it is closing two of its facilities in Iowa and Utah
and selling a beef facility in Washington state, and will lay off hundreds of
workers as the supply of cattle hits a 75-year low.
The historic cattle shortage has
been driven by a multi-year drought, rising costs and severe economic
pressures, including consolidation among cattle ranchers. Beef prices have
soared over the last year due to the shortage, though economists said the Tyson
plant closures likely won’t hit consumer prices so hard.
Earlier this month, Tyson
reported in its third-quarter earnings that beef volume is down 15.9% and beef
operating loss is at $138m.
Glynn Tonsor, an agricultural
economist at Kansas State University, said the US has had excess capacity for
processing and packaging beef for several years now, and beef that would have
been processed in Tyson’s Iowa and Utah plants
will just be rerouted.
“For the majority of the last 40
years, nationally, the US has had more capacity to harvest cattle than we’ve
had cattle,” he said. “Anytime you have too much capacity, or ‘too much’ supply
relative to what is needed in the market, that puts downward pressure on the
margins in that sector. That’s not new.”
With not enough cattle to
harvest, meatpacking plants have been taking measures to slow down operations,
including reducing shifts or cutting Saturday workdays. If operations don’t
pick up, plants eventually close.
August 20, 2026
Donald Trump
Richard - That moment when Donald Trump was warning about the dangers of the US reaching $24 trillion in debt: "That's the point of no return. That's when we become a country that's unsalvageable"
Today, US national debt has reached $40 trillion.
Climate change
Inside
Climate News - Wildfires in Europe could burn across about 39 percent
more land by the end of the century, even if greenhouse gas emissions decline
rapidly over the next few decades, new research shows. With continued high
emissions, the burned area could increase as much as 192 percent.
Emissions reductions are the key
to reducing wildfire impacts, the study, published Thursday in Global Change
Biology, concluded. Improvements in fire prevention, early detection and
firefighting could help limit the damage, but ultimately, Europe can’t fight
its way out of a worsening climate, the authors warned.
“Our results indicate there could
be widespread increases in burned area even under comparatively low warming of
around 1.8 degrees Celsius (3.24 degrees Fahrenheit),” said lead author Maik
Billing, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
With more warming, wildfires become more prevalent around the Mediterranean and
across much of Western and Central Europe, “including areas that to date have
not experienced many fires,” he said.
Polls
Interactive Polls
PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES
Jon Ossoff: 49%
JD Vance: 44%
—
Pete Buttigieg: 49%
JD Vance: 44%
—
Kamala Harris: 49%
JD Vance: 45%
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