memeorandum: Sen. Ted Cruz calls for elections in Venezuela to proceed ‘rapidly’ (Alexandra Marquez/NBC News)

3:00 PM ET, August 30, 2026

Top Items:

Edward Helmore / The Guardian:

Canada erects giant ‘Lake Ontario’ sign as spat with Trump over name escalates — Meanwhile, Trump posts video of himself kicking over a Lake Ontario sign and replacing it with Lake America sign — Donald Trump and Canada continued a verbal duel on Saturday over the US government's administrative renaming …

Discussion: Al Jazeera, Mediaite, Spectrum News NY1, Daily Mail and The Post Millennial

Ford McCracken / ABC News:
Ontario's premier says trade war would be ‘devastating’ for US and Canada

Discussion: Bloomberg, Associated Press, The Hill, The Guardian, Breitbart and Al Jazeera

Ryan Mancini / The Hill:
Google Maps changes Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’ on US phones

Discussion: The Guardian, Reuters, Global News, Mercury News, HuffPost, The Gateway Pundit, twitchy.com, UPI, CBS News, Salon, Los Angeles Times and Mediaite

Kaia Hubbard / CBS News:
Google updates maps to show “Lake America” in U.S. after Trump executive order directing name change

Discussion: The Independent, NewsMax.com and New York Post

Google:
How the GNIS Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps

Discussion: CNN, Rolling Stone, NPR, Axios, The Daily Wire, New York Times, Wired, The Independent, 404 Media, Mother Jones and Mediaite

Washington Post:

Military leaders warn Hegseth against extending Iran war operations — A recent classified assessment advised that prolonged large-scale operations in the Middle East risk weakening U.S. capabilities elsewhere. — Summary — Several U.S. military leaders have advised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth …

Discussion: NewsMax.com, Mother Jones and The Independent

Reid J. Epstein / New York Times:

Postal Service Rule Could Bar Millions From Voting by Mail — A judge temporarily blocked the agency from implementing a strict new rule governing mail voting. The policy could disproportionately affect Democrats and many battleground elections. — Voting by mail would become much more difficult …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Alternet.org and Fox News

Rebecca F. Elliott / New York Times:

Trump Says Venezuelan Oil Will Refill U.S. Stockpiles, but It's Not So Simple — New projects can take years to produce meaningful amounts of oil, and that's especially true in Venezuela, where infrastructure is in disrepair. — By REBECCA F. ELLIOTT — NEWS ANALYSIS — Why the United States Can't Quit Its Wars

Eli Okun / Politico:
The mail ballot mess

Discussion: Palm Beach Post

CNN:

Trump calls for NBC's Kristen Welker to face ‘rebuke or punishment’ from the FCC — Donald Trump Federal agencies People in entertainment Media — Treating the Federal Communications Commission like his own personal enforcer, President Donald Trump said on social media Sunday …

Discussion: New York Post and Mother Jones

Reuters:

Trump says NBC's Welker will be reported to FCC — U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said in a post on Truth Social that NBC's Kristen Welker will be reported to the FCC for “rebuke or punishment”, after he said she reported the Republican President had mixed results in his endorsement of candidates.

Discussion: Politico, Bloomberg, MeidasTouch, The Guardian, Salon, The Hill, Variety, The Daily Wire, Reuters, The Wrap, France 24, Deadline, Washington Examiner, NewsMax.com, The Independent, RedState and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

Deportees Sent to Liberia Recount Harrowing Details of U.S. Expulsion and Treatment by ICE — Ten deportees said they experienced or witnessed what they called abusive or violent treatment by ICE. They spent months in detention, they said, before being sent to nations where they had no ties.

Camilo Montoya-Galvez / CBS News:
ICE deports Afghans and others to Africa, expanding “third country” deportations

Discussion: Associated Press and New York Times

Mark Banchereau / Associated Press:
Trump administration deports relative of Afghans who helped US military to Central African Republic

Discussion: The Hill and CNN

Jonathan Martin / Politico:

The Republican Party's Midterm Nightmare Is Taking Shape … As with every modern presidential campaign, it runs through the Midwest. — If Democrats flip Republican-held seats in Ohio and Iowa while retaining Michigan, they will almost certainly net the four seats total needed to take control …

Kyla Guilfoil / NBC News:

Minnesota Supreme Court rejects Mike Lindell's bid to recount GOP gubernatorial primary — Lindell, a longtime 2020 election denier, previously said he would pay $825,000 to cover a full hand recount of his lost GOP gubernatorial primary in Minnesota. — MyPillow founder Mike Lindell …

Discussion: One America News Network, MPR News, The Hill and Washington Examiner

Manuela Silva / NOTUS: Mike Lindell Vows to Appeal Minnesota Loss to the U.S. Supreme Court

Wall Street Journal:

Talarico Is Out-Fundraising Paxton and Flooding the Airwaves in Texas Senate Race — Democratic candidate is on the offensive, giving his party hope in the deep-red state — Senate candidate James Talarico began August in Massachusetts, standing beside a swimming pool on tony Nantucket …

Discussion: Scripps News and Bloomberg

Raquel Coronell Uribe / NBC News: We're not weird, you're weird: Republicans use Democrats' 2024 attack against them for midterms

Politico:

USDA cyclospora research projects shelved amid funding cuts and relocations — The Trump administration is shuttering research projects key to the federal government's fight against cyclospora, the foodborne parasite sickening thousands of Americans this summer.

New York Times:

How Trump's Policy Agenda Runs Through One Federal Court, in Texas — For years, conservative litigants flocked to Judge Reed O'Connor's district. Now, North Texas has become a favorite destination of the Justice Department. — President Trump's Justice Department had a problem.

Alexandra Marquez / NBC News:

Rep. Jim Clyburn says impeaching Trump shouldn't be Democrats' priority if win back the House — The South Carolina representative also told “Meet the Press” that he regretted his support of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearings in 1991.

Discussion: Washington Examiner

Paul Krugman:

Oligarchy and the Great Evasion — The tax gap: What it is and why it matters — There was a time when the mob boss Al Capone effectively ruled Chicago. He had thoroughly corrupted the local police and politicians, and he murdered rivals with impunity.

Ian Millhiser / Vox:

One of the Supreme Court's worst ideas could save the midterms from Trump — Well, that was quick. — On Thursday evening, federal district Judge Indira Talwani issued a new order that temporarily blocks an effort by the Trump administration that appears designed to sabotage voting by mail in the upcoming midterm election.

Discussion: Alternet.org

Cheyanne M. Daniels / Politico:

Tom Homan defends deportations to Haiti amid travel warnings — Border czar Tom Homan on Sunday defended the Trump administration's ongoing deportations to Haiti despite the State Department's own advisory warning Americans against traveling to the Caribbean country.

Discussion: The Hill, NewsMax.com, Washington Examiner and Grabien

Simon Ormiston / Associated Press:

Breaking news. Iceland votes ‘No’ to reopening EU accession talks, official count confirms — Iceland has voted to reject the resumption of European Union accession talks with a record turnout for a referendum that swung back and forth through the night. — Iceland's ‘No’ camp …

Discussion: Associated Press, BBC, Politico, Bloomberg, France 24, The Gateway Pundit, Reuters, CNBC, Fox News, NPR, Agence France-Presse and Al Jazeera

Mariana Alfaro / Washington Post:

Meet the ex-Republicans running as Democrats in the midterms — In races across the country, former GOP politicians are leaning into their pasts. — Summary — Democrats have struggled to win over Republican voters in recent elections. This year, some Democratic candidates argue …

Wall Street Journal:

Inside Trump's Plan to Give the Pentagon a Stake in Venezuela's Oil Riches — The deal caps months of secretive negotiations to give the U.S. rights to the some of the world's largest proven oil reserves — President Trump spent months declaring his ouster of Venezuela's leader had secured the country's oil for America.