The Daily Brief
Today
Good morning. Trump has barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House grounds over coverage he calls "fake news", and threatens more bans; news outlets have closed ranks in solidarity. Democrats called it an attempt to control the press and distract voters as Republicans face deep challenges in the midterms. The distraction is wanted: analysts warned Saturday that a new "disaster" in the Middle East may further jeopardize GOP prospects in November amid soaring prices, after the Houthis claimed to have carried out a strike in Trump's war — a war whose American dead the Pentagon is undercounting.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday signed a package of laws to safeguard California's Nov. 3 election against interference, having repeatedly warned Trump's administration would try to meddle. The bills answer the fears he and his allies have stoked about election integrity.
Macklemore pledged $1 million — his net earnings from Ed Sheeran's Loop Tour — to Palestinian aid groups after he was dropped for pro-Palestinian comments onstage at MetLife Stadium. He was punished for solidarity while Israel's war grinds on: a Gaza building collapse killed 12 children as Trump plans to send Israel 2,000-pound bombs. Meanwhile fresh lawsuits target Nazi-looted art in museums in Los Angeles and at Auschwitz, part of a theft that stripped over 600,000 works from Jewish families and collectors between 1933 and 1945.
In Inglewood, Black residents may soon receive environmental reparations under AB 1661, after generations living beside oil pumpjacks that made them sick. And Trump said the US will form an "AI Force" and appoint an artificial intelligence tsar, promising his administration "will not in any way hinder or stifle the growth" — a gift to capital dressed as national ambition.
Zoom out: Republicans head into the Nov. 3 midterms battered by soaring prices and a new disaster in Trump's war, as his administration bars reporters and courts the AI industry while California moves to shield its elections from interference.