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Good evening, everyone. Today’s rundown has a real headline story. A Russian businessman with deep ties to the Kremlin bankrolled Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding after-party, and Congress just decided that is worth investigating. On top of that, Trump’s administration had one of its worst nights in court yet, McConnell finally showed his face after three months but reporters were barred from recording him, and there is a long list of other news you need to see. Let’s get into it.
Quick personal note before we dive in. I am genuinely relieved I don’t have to go back to Mitch McConnell’s house again anytime soon, and I am even more relieved that all the MAGA accounts who spent last week attacking me over it can now go find someone else to yell at for a while. It has been a stretch.
To everyone who has supported this work by subscribing, thank you. Genuinely. This newsletter runs because you make it possible, not because of any network or corporation, and if you have not subscribed yet, now is a great time
And stick around, because after today’s rundown, I have more Epstein research to share with you.
Here’s the news:
Congress Investigates Don Jr.’s Wedding as Trump Family Distances itself From Don Jr.:
A Russian businessman with Kremlin ties bankrolled Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding after-party, an extraordinary breach of ethical norms for a president’s family. Umar Kremlev, president of the International Boxing Association and a close associate of Vladimir Putin, paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to rent a private island in the Bahamas and stage a fireworks show for the May celebration, according to ProPublica and The New York Times. Trump Jr. and his wife Bettina acknowledged the gifts on Instagram, describing Kremlev as “our dear friend” who “very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding,” and insisting “Friendship doesn’t require a political motive.” President Trump denied any knowledge of the arrangement, telling reporters, “I have no idea who Umar is, never heard of him, and he didn’t pay for Don and Bettina’s wedding,” calling it merely “an ‘afterparty’ given in their honor. Not a big deal!” Ethics experts were far less dismissive, with the Campaign Legal Center’s Kedric Payne saying, “A gift from such an unusual source puts a red flag on the matter,” and retired FBI official Frank Montoya Jr. bluntly noting, “If I’m paying for your wedding, at some point, you’re going to owe me something. This should be unthinkable for the son of the president.”
The top House Oversight Democrat is now formally investigating, previewing how aggressively he’d probe the Trump family if Democrats retake the House. Rep. Robert Garcia sent letters to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and to Trump Jr. himself, writing that ProPublica’s reporting on Kremlev’s role “may be the most serious allegation against you to date” and that “Oversight Democrats are investigating the numerous ways in which the Trump family have sought to enrich themselves on the basis of their proximity to President Donald Trump.” He’s demanding a full guest list, records of contact between Trump Jr. and Kremlev, any communications with the White House or intelligence officials about the oligarch, and documentation of “all purchases made for your wedding by foreign nationals.” Garcia also wants to know whether Trump Jr. holds a security clearance, whether he disclosed the Kremlev relationship to the White House, and whether the elder Trump’s absence from the wedding was connected to Kremlev’s involvement, writing, “Any possible foreign entanglement deserves close scrutiny.” For now these are only voluntary requests Garcia can’t enforce, but that changes entirely if he wins the Oversight gavel in January, when he’d gain subpoena power to compel testimony and documents.
The fallout has rippled through the rest of the Trump family, with Melania Trump moving fastest to distance herself. Her office stressed she “does not, and has never had, a relationship with Mr. Kremlev” and “played no role whatsoever in organizing the wedding event,” a pointed response given that Kremlev also helps lead a Russian organization under Ukrainian sanctions for allegedly abducting Ukrainian children, an issue central to the first lady’s own advocacy work reuniting families. Eric Trump likewise moved to put daylight between himself and the oligarch, with his spokesman telling ProPublica, “Eric has absolutely no clue who this person is, nor has never heard his name,” despite having attended the wedding himself. Bettina Trump pushed back hard against the scrutiny, writing on Instagram, “So, for anyone determined not to let the facts get in the way of a good story: NO CONSPIRACY, NO MYSTERY. Just a private family wedding, a wonderful weekend with friends and one hell of a party.” The story has also become a political cudgel, with Hunter Biden reportedly mocking the couple over the revelation, and even guests at the party questioning who Kremlev was and why he was there.
Major night of losses in Court:
Supreme Court blocks Trump’s mail ballot rule from taking effect for the midterms. The Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s emergency bid to enforce a new Postal Service regulation on mail-in ballots, in a decision that appeared to split 7-2, with only Thomas and Alito dissenting. The rule would have forced states to submit voter lists to the Postal Service for verification before ballots went out, a role the Postal Service has never played, and a lower court had already found it was likely unlawful. California Attorney General Rob Bonta called it “a victory for our democracy,” while League of Women Voters CEO Celina Stewart said the rule was “an extraordinary attempt to interfere with voting in all 50 states.” Alito wrote in dissent that he found the federal government’s argument more persuasive, and Kavanaugh, despite ultimately blocking the rule, wrote separately that he saw a “fair prospect” the Postal Service actually had the authority to issue it.
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Donald Trump erupted at the Court in response:
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A federal judge refuses to pause sanctions against Trump’s DOJ in its “insurrectionist slush fund” IRS lawsuit. The judge declined to halt her sanctions order while the administration appeals, rejecting the DOJ’s attempt to delay accountability in the case, which challenged Trump’s tax amnesty scheme. In her ruling, the judge stressed there is “a significant interest in knowing that the judiciary is fair and that the same rules apply equally to all litigants,” a direct rebuke of the administration’s effort to get special treatment. The case adds to a growing pile of legal defeats for the DOJ this year. It signals judges are losing patience with the administration’s litigation tactics. The sanctions stand while the appeal plays out, keeping the pressure on Trump’s legal team.
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Trump’s DOJ goes 0 for 23 in district court on its voter roll crusade, but keeps appealing anyway. The department has now lost every district court ruling on its demand that states hand over unredacted, statewide voter registration databases, with fresh losses in Nevada and Minnesota bringing the total to 23 straight defeats. DOJ has appealed 20 of those losses across ten federal circuits, arguing a decades-old civil rights law gives the attorney general power to compel the data, a theory courts nationwide have repeatedly rejected. Its only completed appeal ended in defeat too, when the Sixth Circuit tossed the theory and later declined to rehear the case en banc. Attorney General Todd Blanche has said taking the fight to the Supreme Court is “a possibility,” vowing the department is “not going to stop,” and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon has pointed to sympathetic language from Sixth Circuit judges as reason to try again there. Despite the unbroken losing streak, DOJ shows no sign of narrowing or dropping the legal theory driving the entire campaign.
Mitch McConnell:
Video of a “zombie” looking Mitch McConnell returning to the Senate sparks internet uproar, and reporters were barred from filming it themselves. McConnell cast his first vote since mid-June on Monday, breaking a three month absence that began with a hospitalization after a fall and a mild case of pneumonia. Reporters covering his return were barred from recording video of him in the chamber, leaving the public reliant on secondhand footage instead. That footage, published by TMZ, showed McConnell arriving on Capitol Hill with his mouth agape and appearing to space out, and it spread fast online with commentators calling it “zombie-like.” In a statement, McConnell described his recovery as “a long and often frustrating process” and said that while he’s not “quite back to 100%,” he’ll “do my best to be present for tough votes when our Conference needs me.”
The backlash online was brutal, and even allies piled on. One X user wrote, “Mitch looks like he is a zombie being remotely controlled. This is SO STRANGE!!!! Is he even alive?” while another called him “the deadest alive person.” A third user said, “It’s actually terrifying that Mitch McConnell gets to make decisions that affect all of us.” Right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer went furthest, writing, “Like I said, Mitch is brain dead,” and adding, “You can’t look at his face and say he’s not a vegetable. He’s not even responding to cognition tests. It’s like wheeling a corpse around. Worse than what the Democrats did with Joe Biden to be honest. He looks incapacitated. Brain dead.” The camera ban only deepened questions over how much the public is actually being allowed to see of his condition.
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Other news:
Trump claims his midterm convention “beat” the NFL in the ratings, but the actual numbers say otherwise. The GOP scheduled its first ever midterm convention against the season’s opening NFL games, and Trump’s Wednesday night speech drew about 3 million viewers combined across Fox News, Newsmax, and NewsNation, compared to more than 25 million for the Seahawks-Patriots opener on NBC and Peacock. Trump nonetheless posted the next morning, before any ratings were even available, that “the overall numbers beat the NFL,” calling the event “a major, sold out hit, far bigger, better, and more important than anyone thought possible.” He also pointed to the speech “streaming all over the place” to suggest a bigger combined audience, but CNN notes the most viewed YouTube clips of his night one speech only have hundreds of thousands of views. His shorter night two speech fared no better by comparison, pulling about 3 million viewers across the same three networks while the NFL’s first ever game in Melbourne, streamed on Netflix, drew 18.5 million in the US. Trump did not post about the ratings again after that.
Costco starts rationing motor oil as a key ingredient shortage, driven by the Iran war, pushes prices sharply higher. The retailer hiked its Kirkland Signature full synthetic oil from the mid-$30s to $57.99 and now caps purchases at two units per membership every seven days, with Mobil 1 also capped at five units. Industry group ILMA’s CEO Holly Alfano said the real culprit is a shortage of Group III base oil, whose price has jumped 235 percent since the Middle East war began, since roughly 40 percent of US supply comes from Middle Eastern facilities damaged in the fighting and another 30 percent from South Korea, which relies on Middle Eastern crude. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has compounded the problem by raising shipping costs and lengthening delivery times, and oil companies are also prioritizing crude for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel over motor oil ingredients since those are more profitable right now. Costco’s competitors, including Walmart, AutoZone, and Amazon, haven’t introduced similar limits yet, but Alfano said she doesn’t expect the market to normalize until at least the end of next year, since new Group III production capacity in the US and rebuilt Middle East facilities won’t be ready before then.
US confirms for the first time that it has active weapons deployed in space, and analysts warn it will accelerate a dangerous arms race with Russia and China. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink announced Monday at the Air, Space, Cyber Conference that Washington now has “on-orbit” space-control weapons circling the globe, though he declined to detail specifics. A Space Force spokesperson said such capabilities can include “employing kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect adversary capabilities” for both offensive and defensive purposes. China’s foreign ministry responded by accusing the US of “preparing for war in outer space” and warned against turning space into “a battlefield, as well as an arms race there.” Astronomer Jonathan McDowell said it was reasonable to assume the weapons are likely signal jammers, and predicted Russia and China will now “respond in kind” by deploying their own. He added that he finds it “questionable whether this is in the US national interest,” warning it isn’t too late to change course and work with China instead, since “they are the real competitors in space now.”
Houthi rebels seize two strategic Red Sea islands, deepening fears of a global oil supply crisis. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants captured Greater and Lesser Hanish, located 160 kilometers north of the Bab al-Mandab strait, extending their rapid advance after already taking the port of Mokha and Perim island. The seizures come as Saudi Arabia simultaneously grapples with attacks on a critical oil pipeline by Iran-allied militants in Iraq, forcing Riyadh to reroute exports even as its east-west pipeline remains down for what could be weeks. Nearly 94,000 people in Yemen have fled their homes this month alone, with roughly 200 schools converted into shelters and more than 2,000 refugees crossing into Djibouti, just 32 kilometers from a US military base there. Analysts at Rystad Energy said 2.6 million to 4 million barrels a day that normally move through the closed pipeline are now at risk of “disappearing from the market,” and Chevron’s CEO said the world’s oil stockpile buffers have been “played out,” making a quick price drop hard to envision. Brent crude rose to nearly $107 a barrel Tuesday, and US diesel prices topped $6 a gallon for the first time last week.
The EPA moves to repeal emissions limits on coal and gas power plants, one of the administration’s biggest rollbacks of Biden-era climate policy yet. The change would scrap a 2024 rule requiring power plants to use carbon capture technology, and the agency separately proposed eliminating all other greenhouse gas rules by arguing it lacks authority to regulate them at all. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin framed it as protecting affordability, saying the move would “unleash” American energy, while the agency claimed it would save industry more than $300 billion. Environmental groups, already suing over the administration’s earlier repeal of the endangerment finding, promised new litigation, with the Sierra Club’s Patrick Drupp calling it “full-throated climate denial” that will mean “more pollution, more extreme weather, higher electricity bills.” The rollback comes as this summer set heat records nationwide, with July the hottest month ever recorded in the US and June through August the warmest such stretch on record, and a law firm partner who oversaw the EPA’s Supreme Court docket said the case likely won’t reach the high court before Trump leaves office.
A UK inquiry finds hospital failures let nurse Lucy Letby keep killing babies longer than she should have. Inquiry chair Kathryn Thirlwall said a “complete failure” to protect infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital, driven by dysfunctional management, meant some of Letby’s murders could have been prevented had staff acted sooner. Letby, convicted in 2023 of murdering seven newborns and attempting to murder six others by insulin overdose, air injection, or force-feeding, remains Britain’s most prolific modern child killer despite a growing campaign questioning her guilt. Thirlwall stressed her report did not weigh in on Letby’s innocence or guilt, saying, “Once there was suspicion that Letby may be causing harm deliberately, safeguarding steps should have been taken,” adding bluntly, “Suspicion is enough.” She recommended reforms including cameras on cots and incubators, tighter insulin storage, and a formal NHS protocol for suspected deliberate harm, while three senior hospital managers remain under investigation for gross negligence manslaughter.
Sabotage disrupts Dutch train service just hours before the king’s ceremonial opening of parliament. Rail operator ProRail said pipes were deliberately attached to tracks at more than 20 locations, mostly in rural areas in the middle and east of the Netherlands, forcing all nearby trains to halt and causing serious disruptions including to international routes to Germany. King Willem-Alexander was still set to deliver his budget speech Tuesday afternoon outlining 2027 spending plans. ProRail spokesperson Joke van der Cruysen said, “We discovered materials that had been deliberately placed there,” officially classifying it as sabotage, while the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD joined police in investigating. No motive or suspect has been identified yet, though the disruption lands amid months of unrelated protests over the government’s budget from labor unions and farmers, some of whom had planned their own demonstration in The Hague the same day. The sabotage also snarled road traffic since several level crossings had to stay closed.
Gavin Newsom says he won’t run for president in 2028 if Kamala Harris runs again. Newsom told CNN in an interview aired Monday, “I wouldn’t run if she ran,” arguing that a race between two California Democrats would be an electoral “gift” for everyone else and pure “mutual assured destruction.” He said the case for Harris over him would be strong, calling it “objectively true” that she’d already run twice while he never has, and adding, “That would be the case you’d make. Pretty good one, actually.” Newsom pointed to how closely their political bases and friend groups overlap, saying, “I wouldn’t do that to people.” Harris has not said whether she’ll run again, telling supporters this year only that she’s “thinking about it,” while Newsom, whose term ends in months, has said he’ll seriously weigh a bid after the midterms.
Harry and Meghan switch their children’s school just days into the term, citing security concerns. Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5, had only just started at an undisclosed school after the family moved back to Britain from California last month, before their parents pulled them out for another one. A spokesperson said the move followed “a discussion with the family’s security team about the practicalities of their current arrangements,” stressing it reflected no issue with the school itself. Royal commentator Emily Nash said the original school sat far enough away that the commute left the children exposed to traffic congestion, adding, “they risked sitting in traffic where they were potentially exposed to greater threats.” The switch comes as the couple awaits a government decision on publicly funded security protection, and amid continued strain with the royal family after a recent letter reaffirmed they’d remain nonworking, private royals during their renewed UK stay.
See you soon.
— Aaron
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