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Good morning everyone. A very busy night of election news. Republican-backed ballot initiatives in red states fell across the board. It comes as Trump faces major embarrassment after his endorsed candidate in a Republican primary lost to someone who had already dropped out of the race.
Meanwhile, UFC lost $30 million on the White House UFC fight, Trump is rolling back endangered species protections, Republicans are standing by Max Miller despite the abuse allegations, and much more.
I’m sitting down with Senator Wyden this afternoon for a major interview, all things Epstein, and we’ll have a major Epstein announcement on the criminal investigation in New Mexico. Stay tuned on all fronts.
Bari Weiss killed the critical Epstein related interview with Senator Wyden. I’m doing that interview today. You won’t want to miss it. I will never stop talking about Epstein. Subscribe to support independent journalism.
Here’s the news:
UFC lost roughly $30 million staging its Freedom 250 event on the White House South Lawn in June, an invite-only gathering of about 4,300 people, including President Trump and VP JD Vance, marking 250 years of American independence and coinciding with Trump’s 80th birthday. Initial costs were projected above $60 million, partially offset by sponsorships and media exposure, and the loss was anticipated by UFC’s parent company, TKO Group Holdings. Despite the one-off loss, TKO reported UFC’s overall second-quarter revenue rose 29% year-over-year to $535.7 million, boosted by a new $7.7 billion, seven-year Paramount deal that carried the White House event exclusively on Paramount+ and drew an average of 34 million viewers worldwide, making it one of the most-watched MMA events ever. High-roller packages reportedly cost up to $1.5 million for special access, though UFC hasn’t confirmed exact pricing, and a free public viewing event was also held nearby at Ellipse Park.
Trump announced his administration is rolling back protections under the 1973 Endangered Species Act, claiming “radical climate activists” had exploited the law to unreasonably block oil, gas, timber, housing and military activities. The change relaxes the legal definition of “harm” to habitats, reversing an interpretation the Supreme Court upheld in 1995 to protect spotted owls; Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the law had become a “regulatory trap,” while Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said it would benefit fishermen burdened by broad regulations. Environmental groups strongly condemned the move: Earthjustice’s Kristen Boyles said there’s no scientific, legal, or public support for it, and advocates from Oceana and the Center for Biological Diversity warned it could be a “death sentence” for species like monarch butterflies, wolverines, and Florida manatees, since habitat loss is the leading cause of extinction. The rule change was first proposed last year and formally adopted in July before Trump touted it publicly this week.
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U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum reportedly had a heated shouting match in front of Trump on Monday over the Reflecting Pool debacle, after Pirro dropped vandalism charges against former Olympian David Hearn. Pirro brought boxes of evidence to the Oval Office showing Burgum’s department had known the damage stemmed from a “rushed and flawed” contractor installation rather than sabotage, and privately called Burgum an “incompetent liar” for allegedly withholding that information until after Hearn’s indictment. Trump himself was furious with Pirro for dropping the case and publicly accused her of “folding like an umbrella” and choking in front of a “vicious” judge, though sources say he seemed noticeably calmer by the meeting’s end. Trump has continued pushing the vandalism claim despite the contradicting evidence, and when asked Tuesday whether he’d fire Pirro, he said he “hasn’t made a determination.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson broke his silence on domestic abuse allegations against Rep. Max Miller, calling them “serious” but insisting the House Ethics Committee investigation must “play out” before any disciplinary action, since “we don’t take disciplinary action against members for allegations.” The allegations, from Miller’s ex-wife Emily Moreno, include holding a gun to her head and breaking their daughter’s collarbone; Miller denies wrongdoing, calls the claims “politically motivated,” and requested the Ethics probe himself, which now also covers alleged illegal drug use.
Trump said he hopes Rep. Max Miller is “able to work it out” and that he “feels badly for him,” when asked for comment on Miller.
According to Reuters, a proposed Iran-Oman deal would give Tehran control over ships entering the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, a major concession, though sources say key details remain unresolved and pushed back on Trump’s claims that an agreement is imminent. The main sticking point is Iran’s role over outbound ships, and Iran is reportedly seeking fees of 5-7% on cargo value, versus Oman’s proposed ~3% and Washington’s insistence on no fees at all; making fees “voluntary” is floated as a possible compromise, though implied threats could pressure shippers to pay anyway. Trump said talks are “moving along nicely” and warned Iran would be “hit really hard” if it backs out again, but this comes after months of U.S. strikes failed to break Iran’s grip on the strait, and Reuters separately reported the U.S. Army has used nearly all its long-range precision missiles. Meanwhile, Houthi forces in Yemen struck a Saudi-flagged tanker in the Red Sea Wednesday, part of an ongoing campaign against Saudi oil shipping that has kept regional tensions and oil prices elevated even as crude sits near its lowest levels since early July.
Election results:
Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official, has won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary over establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens, despite being outspent nearly 9-to-1 (roughly $65 million in outside money favored Stevens, including over $30 million from an AIPAC-affiliated group). He’ll face Republican Mike Rogers in November in a race seen as pivotal to Senate control, with Trump predicting Rogers will fare better against El-Sayed than he would have against Stevens. El-Sayed ran on Medicare for All, criticism of corporate PAC money, and campaigned with Bernie Sanders and AOC despite not being formally DSA-affiliated; he also drew scrutiny for leaked donor-call remarks about targeting Democrats like Sen. John Fetterman. Gov. Whitmer’s late endorsement of Stevens failed to stop El-Sayed’s momentum, and third-place finisher Mallory McMorrow has since endorsed him for the general election, calling for party unity.
Trump’s endorsed candidate in Michigan’s 8th congressional district Republican primary, Amir Hassan, is on track to lose by more than 17 points to Thomas J. Smith, even though Smith dropped out of the race last month and remained on the ballot only because it was too late to remove his name. Smith has since endorsed a different Republican, Al Lemmo, who was pulling around 16% of the vote. With about 99% counted, the loss marks another instance of a Trump endorsement failing to sway voters, despite the president’s backing typically being seen as a strong advantage. The winner will go on to face Democratic incumbent Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet in the competitive Flint-area district this November.
Kansas voters rejected a GOP-backed constitutional amendment that would have replaced the state’s current judicial appointment system with direct elections for state Supreme Court justices. Currently, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly appoints justices from a list vetted by a nonpartisan commission, with justices then facing retention votes; Republicans pushed the change after the court ruled in 2019 that the state constitution protects abortion rights, a decision voters upheld in 2022. The campaign drew over $12 million in ad spending, with opponents outspending supporters more than 2-to-1, arguing the measure would inject partisan money and politics into the courts, similar to costly Wisconsin judicial races. Supporters framed it as giving voters more direct say, but Democrats and some Republicans, including state AG Kris Kobach’s past comments, suggested the real goal was enabling anti-abortion justices to be seated more easily. Critics also noted Republicans placed the measure on the lower-turnout August primary ballot rather than the November general election.
Missouri voters rejected Amendment 4, a Republican-backed measure that would have required citizen-led constitutional amendments to win a majority in every congressional district rather than just a statewide majority, a change critics said would have made Missouri’s initiative process “functionally dead” and the strictest in the country. The push came after voters used the current simple-majority system in recent years to pass progressive measures on abortion rights, Medicaid expansion, marijuana legalization, and paid sick leave (the last of which the GOP-controlled Legislature later repealed). Opponents outspent supporters roughly $6 million to zero on broadcast ads, and the same anti-Amendment 4 campaign also opposed a separate measure to eliminate income taxes in favor of higher sales taxes. The effort followed Missouri Republicans’ recent redrawing of the state’s congressional map to eliminate the lone Democratic-held district, and a competing referendum to undo that map was separately blocked from the ballot by the Secretary of State. Missouri joins other GOP-led states, including North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah, that are pursuing similar efforts this year to raise the threshold for citizen-initiated constitutional changes.
Rep. Wesley Bell defeated former Rep. Cori Bush in a St. Louis Democratic primary rematch, with Bell’s campaign and allies outspending Bush roughly 27-to-1, including $2 million in ads from AIPAC’s United Democracy Project super PAC attacking Bush’s Israel criticism. Bell tried to frame the race around local issues, telling voters “the M in Missouri doesn’t stand for Middle East,” while Bush countered that outside money was “buying candidates” and that Missourians weren’t happy about it. Some Democratic voters cited corporate/dark money influence as their reason for backing Bush despite the race not being framed around it in Bell’s messaging, while Bush ran ads linking Bell to AIPAC and prioritizing Israel aid over tornado recovery funding for Missourians. This is a repeat of 2024, when the same AIPAC-linked super PAC spent $9.3 million to help Bell first unseat Bush. Bush said a loss wouldn’t set back the progressive movement, and flatly ruled out ever voting for a Republican when asked if she’d support Bell in November.
Sunrise Movement co-founder William Lawrence won the Democratic primary in Michigan’s 7th District, beating out more moderate rivals former Ambassador Bridget Brink and retired Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam, and will now face GOP Rep. Tom Barrett in one of the nation’s most closely watched swing seats (Trump won it by just 1 point in 2024). A mysterious super PAC spent over $1 million boosting Lawrence and attacking Maasdam, fueling Democratic worries that Republicans helped him win because they see him as an easier general-election opponent.
Other news:
According to NBC News, the Pentagon’s policy chief is drafting a new classified U.S. nuclear strategy, according to five sources familiar with the plans, that emphasizes the potential use of shorter-range tactical nuclear weapons in the event of a regional war with China or Russia. The classified document is meant to inform the president’s nuclear options during a crisis.
Reuters has confirmed that FBI Director Kash Patel has built new law enforcement partnerships with China and Russia over the past 15 months, exchanging personnel and intelligence to jointly combat fentanyl trafficking, cyber fraud, and child exploitation networks, a major break from decades of treating both countries primarily as adversaries and espionage threats. The cooperation has produced concrete results: “Operation Sand Dollar” in May led to a joint FBI-China-Dubai raid on a cyber scam center yielding 300 arrests and $300 million seized, while separate operations with Chinese authorities resulted in arrests tied to fentanyl precursor chemicals and a child sexual abuse materials network taken down with an FBI Omaha field office. Patel insists the partnerships are narrow, reciprocal, and won’t replace core alliances like Five Eyes, and says FBI facilities deploy surveillance and vetting for foreign visitors from adversarial nations.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham is not actively considering a public inquiry into Jeffrey Epstein’s activities in Britain, despite victims’ minister Alex Davies-Jones saying on BBC Newsnight that the PM was “looking into” such an inquiry and “taking this very seriously.” A separate inquiry into allegations against former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed, who faces more than 400 sexual abuse allegations spanning 1977-2014 (with London police investigating claims from at least 156 complainants), is also reportedly under consideration, though not confirmed as a formal public inquiry either.
The Trump administration has refunded about $100bn (60%) of the $165bn collected under the “liberation day” tariffs, after the Supreme Court ruled those levies illegal in February. Despite the tariff income, the federal deficit has actually grown, hitting $1.37tn in the first nine months of the fiscal year, up 2% from 2025. Last month Trump imposed a new round of tariffs (10-12.5%) on over 80 countries under Section 301 of the Trade Act, targeting countries accused of forced labor practices. This week a coalition of 25 states sued the administration, arguing the new tariffs are just a pretext to reinstate the levies the Supreme Court already struck down, and are asking the Court of International Trade to block them and order refunds.
China announced new economic countermeasures against the U.S. Wednesday, including case-by-case export controls on drones and related technology, and a trade ban on six American entities (including Applied DNA Sciences and Human Rights in China), in response to recent U.S. restrictions like the FCC’s Chinese drone import ban and Homeland Security adding 43 Chinese companies to a forced-labor import blacklist. China’s Commerce Ministry said the U.S. moves violated agreements reached between Xi Jinping and Trump and warned of further sanctions if Washington adds new restrictions, while framing its own response as restrained. Beijing also barred Compliance Testing LLC from doing business in China for working with the FCC, is investigating potential security risks from imported printing software and office equipment, and moved to block U.S.-based auditors from providing CCC safety certifications for electronics, effectively forcing American manufacturers to use non-U.S. certifying bodies.
The FAA is investigating a Tuesday air-traffic incident in which Trump’s Marine One helicopter departed the White House while air-traffic controllers failed to halt commercial flights at Reagan National Airport, as protocol requires. An Envoy Air regional jet bound for Pensacola took off around the same time and apparently lost required separation from Marine One, though sources say the two aircraft weren’t converging and neither was involved in a “dangerous close call”; both landed safely. A separate regional flight was diverted around the airport out of caution during the incident, and the FAA plans to convene a Safety Review Team. The episode is notable because the FAA imposed strict helicopter-jet separation rules around Reagan National after a January 2025 mid-air collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines jet killed 67 people, a crash the NTSB attributed to systemic FAA safety failures.
North Carolina Republican congressman Chuck Edwards announced he won’t seek re-election after the House ethics committee found he “fostered a hostile work environment and engaged in sexual harassment” by singling out two young female staffers for gifts and special attention. He’ll finish his current term, ending in January. The bipartisan panel had recommended censure, which would require Edwards to stand in the House well while a rebuke is read aloud; the investigation found no evidence of sexual activity or advances, but concluded his conduct likely violated the House’s harassment rules, and noted he hadn’t taken responsibility for the harm caused. Edwards was already seen as vulnerable in November’s midterms, with forecaster Sabato’s Crystal Ball recently rating his western North Carolina district a “toss-up.”
A four-ton discarded section of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, left in space since it launched a Firefly Aerospace lunar lander in January 2025, is believed to have unintentionally slammed into the moon on Wednesday at roughly 5,400 miles per hour. NASA said the impact was expected to carve out a crater about 60 feet wide and 12 feet deep, though astronomers weren’t able to immediately confirm the collision, possibly because the impact site was near the moon’s visible edge. The rocket stage ended up on this trajectory after burning its remaining fuel and drifting uncontrolled, with SpaceX’s Julianna Scheiman explaining that a mix of solar activity and gravitational forces pulled it toward the moon; NASA and SpaceX are now discussing ways to prevent similar impacts in the future. Experts say the crash poses no danger to Earth and could offer minor scientific value, though software developer Bill Gray noted it “does highlight a certain carelessness about how leftover space hardware is disposed of.” The news comes as SpaceX posted a smaller-than-expected loss and a revenue surge in its first earnings report as a public company, though shares still fell on investor skepticism about the company’s ambitious promises.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s pick for permanent Army chief of staff, Gen. Christopher LaNeve, faces resistance from Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who worry he’s only held four-star rank for six months versus the typical 18-month tenure before taking the top job. Committee chairman Sen. Roger Wicker reportedly told Hegseth back in May that LaNeve lacked the votes, and Sen. Joni Ernst is among those raising concerns; LaNeve has been serving in an acting capacity since Hegseth fired the popular Gen. Randy George in April, and Hegseth can keep him there indefinitely since there’s no statutory time limit. LaNeve’s rise reportedly stems partly from impressing Trump on a 2025 video call (”Is this man central casting, or what?”) and from being championed by retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, after which he was elevated over predecessor Gen. James Mingus.
The UN’s World Food Programme warns that a developing “super El Niño” could push about 50 million more people into acute hunger by the end of 2027, adding to the 225 million already facing severe food insecurity across 45 countries. Central and South America, the Caribbean, and southern Africa are expected to be hit hardest, while South and Southeast Asia face reduced rainfall threatening agriculture. This El Niño is shaping up to be the strongest in 70 years, amplified by climate change, and experts say the worst impacts in southern Africa won’t hit until the 2027-28 “lean season” after harvests are exhausted. The WFP is budgeting at least $80m for early warning and anticipatory relief efforts, though data collection gaps due to funding cuts have complicated preparation, and officials stressed that food-exporting countries avoiding export bans will be key to preventing wider price spikes.
Vladimir Tkachuk, director of the Uraldronzavod factory near Yekaterinburg that manufactures Russia’s “Upyr” (Ghoul) drones, was badly wounded and hospitalized in grave condition after his car exploded late Tuesday, according to Russian state media. No details on the explosion or suspects have been released. Tkachuk had built the team that developed the cheap, jamming-resistant Upyr drone, praised by Russian troops. Russian authorities routinely blame Kyiv for attacks on military-linked officials since the 2022 invasion, and this incident follows Saturday’s deadly bombing at a Moscow restaurant that killed five, which Russia’s embassy in Rome attributed to Ukraine; some unverified Russian media reports claimed that attack targeted a Russian general celebrating his birthday there.
See you soon.
— Aaron
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