‘The vibes are very bad’ in Texas  —  With help from Eli Okun, Ali Bianco and Irie Sentner  —  Good Wednesday morning.  We're here in Dallas for the convention — and we're already getting a pulse check around the extravaganza before the speeches kick off.  Get in touch.  —  In today's Playbook ...

Trump administration proposes changes to census that could exclude millions  —  They could also reshape congressional representation and federal funding allocations.  —  Summary  —  Millions of residents could be excluded from the U.S. census, congressional representation could be reshaped …

Trump's PAC Unloads War Chest, With $49 Million Headed to Key Midterm Races  —  A recently created Republican group tied to the president's super PAC is pumping cash into half a dozen key midterm races, with the largest amounts going toward Senate contests in Michigan and Ohio.

Missouri court opens contempt probe into Republican official over redistricting fight  —  The Missouri Supreme Court has asked Secretary of State Denny Hoskins to respond to claims that he is defying a ruling that bars the state from using a new, GOP-friendly congressional map.

Anthropic insiders warn AI could kill all humans  —  Three Anthropic researchers went public last night with chilling concerns about out-of-control AI, warning it could destroy humans this decade.  — Anthropic AI researcher Jacob Coxon wrote on X, after resigning Tuesday to sound the alarm …

Inflatable slide deploys on Qatari-gifted Air Force One ahead of Trump's Dallas trip  —  Trump told reporters that they were “doing a check on the slide.”  —  The emergency slide of Air Force One is deployed ahead of Donald Trump's trip to the Republican National Midterm Convention, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, September 9, 2026.

“We're the Outliers Here”: UK-Led Sanctions on Israeli Settlements Isolate the US  —  On September 8, the British government banned the import of goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.  —  Eleven other nations—Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway …

Trump gave $45,000 cash gifts to Natalie Harp, two other close aides  —  Financial disclosures released by the administration show the sums were equivalent to nearly one-third of each of their salaries.  —  Summary  —  President Donald Trump gave $45,000 cash gifts to his executive assistant Natalie Harp …

Treasury Department to buy back up to $6 billion in longer-term debt, triple the normal level … The Treasury Department on Wednesday said it will buy back up to $6 billion of government debt in an operation aimed at keeping bond markets functioning.  —  The much-anticipated announcement triples …

Ectopic Pregnancy Deaths Have Nearly Doubled.  It's Worse in States With Abortion Bans.  —  The number of women who died after an ectopic pregnancy has spiked in recent years, a ProPublica analysis found.  The mounting deaths in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data have drawn little scrutiny or response.

Trump Tells Weird Lie About Where He Was on 9/11  —  President Trump took part in the Tunnel to Towers Foundation's Steel Across America tour Tuesday, delivering remarks from the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., in honor of the upcoming 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Ballot seizures seemed impossible.  But judges and officials are prepping for them now  —  The idea of federal law enforcement seizing ballots in the middle of an active election would have once been considered impossible.  —  Now, as President Trump continues his unprecedented hunt for voter fraud …

Thousands of overseas voters could be disenfranchised by Trump mail voting rule, advocates warn  —  As they've sought to implement President Donald Trump's executive order attacking mail voting, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) have maintained that the restrictions …

‘Shoot Him!’:  Police Threaten Third-Country Nationals Imprisoned in African Hotel  —  A police officer aimed a loaded assault rifle at unarmed immigrants expelled to Equatorial Guinea by the Trump administration in a chaotic incident on September 3 in which the officer's supervisor ordered him to shoot, multiple cellphone videos show.

Iran attacks US base in Jordan, ships near Hormuz after tankers sunk  —  Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. sank five Iranian oil tankers, in the biggest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war.

Anthropic Researcher Quits Over ‘Out-of-Control’ AI Fears  —  Concerns are rising inside AI labs that competition is pushing tech companies to race toward self-improving models that risk spiraling out of human control  —  An Anthropic researcher is quitting the artificial-intelligence industry …

Maine and Michigan Senate races are neck and neck, CNN polls find  —  Election polls Congressional news Senate election US elections  —  The critical Senate contests in both Maine and Michigan feature tight races with no clear leader, according to new CNN polls conducted by SSRS.

Louisiana's abortion pill case could wipe out access in blue states  —  The next phase in the abortion wars may come down to one question: Do the rights of red states to enforce bans override the rights of blue states to protect access?  —  Louisiana will argue before a federal appeals court …

Trump says he'd consider pardoning Michael Cohen  —  President Trump said Friday he would consider pardoning attorney Michael Cohen, while complaining about how the legal system treated his former fixer.  —  Trump was asked about whether he would pardon Cohen, who was the star witness …

Proof from the states: the right wing attempt to repeal the 20th century  —  We read the legislation introduced across all 50 states this session and pulled out the worst of it.  1,182 bills, 48 states, everything from abortion bounties to studying chemtrails to a proposal to legalize cockfighting against robots.