1/ The world needs to invest $2.7 trillion a year to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and keep temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius this century, according to a new report by Wood Mackenzie. While governments’ existing net zero pledges cover 88% of annual global emissions, no major country is currently on track to even meet their emissions targets by 2030 – let alone 2050 – likely putting the world on track to warm by 2.5C by 2050. Staying below 1.5C, however, is still possible but requires wind and solar to become the world’s main source of power twice as fast while decreasing dependency on fossil fuels from the current 80% to 50%. Demand for fossil fuels are expected to peak around 2030 and fall roughly 25% by 2050 from 2019 levels. (Axios / Reuters / Recharge News / Wood Mackenzie / NBC News)

2/ A federal judge ruled – again – that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is illegal. Last year, the Biden administration attempted to preserve the program, which protects nearly 600,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children from deportations, by codifying the policy into a federal regulation. The judge, however, didn’t order an immediate end to the program and current beneficiaries will be able to keep and renew their protection, but no new applications will be allowed. The Biden administration is expected to appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the case is likely to end up in the Supreme Court. (Associated Press / ABC News / Washington Post / New York Times / CNN / Bloomberg)

3/ Kevin McCarthy dared his Republican colleagues to make good on their threats to remove him as speaker, saying “If you want to file the motion, file the fucking motion.” The House has passed one of 12 required appropriations bills ahead of a Sept. 30 government funding deadline. Meanwhile, the House Freedom Caucus has opposed a continuing resolution to keep the government temporarily funded unless it includes their policy demands. Members...

1/ Inflation accelerated for a second consecutive month – the fastest pace in more than a year – due to a jump in gasoline prices, which accounted for more than half of the increase. Consumer prices rose 0.6% in August from the prior month – the most since inflation peaked at a four-decade high in June 2022 – and up 3.7% from a year earlier. Although prices climbed at a faster monthly pace than expected, the report keeps Federal Reserve officials on track to hold interest rates steady next week after raising rates to a 22-year high in July. The Fed has two more meetings this year – in early November and mid-December – and their decision on whether to lift rates higher will depend on whether price increases continue to slow in coming months. (Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / New York Times / USA Today / CNBC / ABC News / NBC News / Politico)

2/ A federal judge denied Mark Meadows’ request to pause court proceedings in Fulton County while he appeals the ruling. Last week, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones rejected Meadows’ request to move his case to federal court. Meadows “has not shown he is entitled to an emergency stay,” Jones ruled, adding: “Meadows’s contentions that he would be irreparably harmed by the possibility of facing trial next month are insufficient to carry his burden on the emergency stay requested.” Meadows, meanwhile, appealed the decision to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which granted him an expedited review. (CNBC / CNN / ABC News / Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

3/ A federal judge refused to give Trump permission to discuss classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, where he’s already mishandled classified documents. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, however, didn’t specify where the secure facility for reviewing sensitive records for Trump’s trial will be. Trump’s lawyers argued that requiring him to travel to talk about classified information would impose a heavy burden, given the complex logistics and security involved as both a former president and 2024 candidate. Prosecutors, however, told Cannon that Trump was seeking “special treatment that no other criminal defendant would receive.” (Washington Post / New York Times / CNN /

1/ Kevin McCarthy directed three House committees to open an impeachment inquiry into Biden as far-right Republican lawmakers threaten to remove him as speaker. McCarthy said the impeachment inquiry would center on whether Biden benefited from Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and elsewhere despite investigations led by Republicans on the House Judiciary and Oversight committees having not uncovered any direct evidence that Biden personally benefited from his son’s business dealings. Notably, McCarthy did not announce a full House vote to open the inquiry and it’s unclear if he has the 218 votes needed to launch a formal inquiry. Several centrist Republican lawmakers oppose the effort. McCarthy, meanwhile, is trying to secure enough votes from far-right Republicans – who have been pushing for a Biden impeachment – to keep the government funded beyond the Sept. 30 deadline to avoid a shutdown. A single Republican, however, can bring a no-confidence vote to the floor to remove McCarthy as speaker, and less than an hour after the announcement Matt Gaetz accused McCarthy of violating the power-sharing agreement he made with the far-right to be elected speaker in January. Gaetz threatened to bring a motion to vacate against McCarthy if he puts a short-term spending bills on the floor instead of holding votes on balancing the budget and term limits. Marjorie Taylor Greene also said she wouldn’t vote to fund the government unless the House opened a formal impeachment inquiry into Biden. The White House called the impeachment inquiry “extreme politics at its worst.” (Washington Post / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / ABC News / NPR / CNN / CNBC / NBC News / Associated Press / Politico / Punchbowl News / Bloomberg)

2/ A group of Minnesota voters filed a lawsuit seeking to block Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot in the state, citing the “insurrection clause” of the 14th Amendment. It’s the second lawsuit in the past month to try to keep Trump off the ballot in next year’s presidential race under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. (

1/ The FDA approved updated Covid-19 vaccines targeting the omicron XBB.1.5 subvariant. The new vaccines are authorized for people 12 and older and are under emergency use for children 6 months through 11 years old. The CDC is expected to sign off Tuesday on the new boosters, meaning the vaccines could become available in pharmacies, clinics, and doctor’s offices by the end of the week. (The FDA decides who can get a shot; the CDC that recommends who should get it.) Although the XBB.1.5 subvariant accounts for about 3% of new Covid cases, the new shot does protect against EG.5 – the most prevalent variant at the moment which accounts for about 22% of new cases – and similar variants, health officials said. This is the first time the federal government is not buying all the shots, though most Americans with private health insurance or coverage through Medicare or Medicaid should still be able to get the vaccine for free. The estimated 30 million people without health insurance should still be able to a booster for free at community health centers or through the CDC’s Bridge Access Program. (Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News / CNN / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal / CNBC)

2/ A federal appeals court ruled that the Biden administration most likely violated the First Amendment when it urged social media platforms to remove Covid-19 disinformation. The judges, all Republican nominees, wrote that the administration had “coerced the platforms to make their moderation decisions by way of intimidating messages and threats of adverse consequences” when it came to false or harmful content about Covid-19, the 2020 election, and other topics. The court found that Biden Administration officials had “significantly encouraged the platforms’ decisions by commandeering their decision-making processes.” (NPR / New York Times / CNN / Washington Post)

3/ Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito rejected calls for him to recuse himself from an upcoming tax case despite one of the lawyers involved in the case, David Rivkin, having interviewed him for two articles recently published in the Wall Street Journal. Alito said “there is no valid reason for my recusal in this case,” adding that the argument for him to recuse was “unsound.” Alito claimed that Rivkin was participating in the interviews “as a journalist, not an advocate.” Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin and Democrats on the panel asked that Alito recuse himself from the case, saying Alito used his interviews with Rivkin to “air his personal grievances” and now creates “an appearance of impropriety.” Durbin added that the “Court is in a crisis of its own making, and Justice Alito and the rest of the Court should be doing everything in their po...

1/ Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis accused Jim Jordan of trying to obstruct her prosecution of Trump and his 18 co-defendants for their efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Last month, Jordan and other Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee demanded that Willis turn over all documents related to her prosecution of Trump, accusing her of coordinating with Biden administration officials. “There is no justification in the Constitution for Congress to interfere with a state criminal matter, as you attempt to do,” Willis said, adding that “the obvious purpose” of Jordan’s request “is to obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and to advance outrageous partisan misrepresentations.” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution / NBC News / New York Times / CNBC / The Hill)

2/ Trump notified the judge overseeing his Georgia election subversion case that he “may” try to move the state case into federal court. He would be the sixth defendant to file such a motion, joining Mark Meadows, Jeffrey Clark, David Shafer, Cathy Latham, and Shawn Still. Trump now has a month to file a formal notice of removal of the case to federal court in Georgia. (CNN / ABC News / CNBC)

3/ Trump was warned in May 2022 that the FBI could search Mar-a-Lago if he didn’t comply with a grand jury subpoena for the return of all the classified documents. Minutes after Trump’s lawyer, Evan Corcoran, told Trump he needed to comply with the subpoena, a different Trump attorney warned him that Trump is “just going to go ballistic” if he’s pushed to comply with the subpoena. On Aug. 8, 2022, the FBI executed a federal search warrant at Mar-a-Lago and recovered more than 100 classified documents. A Mar-a-Lago IT worker, meanwhile, struck a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office to provide testimony. Yuscil Taveras previously “retracted his prior false testimony” and implicated Trump and others in obstruction of justice. (

1/ Biden canceled all seven Trump-issued oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and prohibited oil drilling in 13 million acres in the federally owned National Petroleum Reserve. “As the climate crisis warms the Arctic more than twice as fast as the rest of the world, we have a responsibility to protect this treasured region for all ages,” Biden said in a statement, adding that the state is full of “breathtaking natural wonders” that need protection. While the new regulations are intended to ensure “maximum protections” for nearly half of the petroleum reserve, it will not block the ConocoPhillips Willow project, which Biden approved earlier this year. The Willow project is expected to produce 576 million barrels of oil over 30 years. (New York Times / Bloomberg / Politico / Washington Post / CNN / The Hill)

2/ A federal judge ruled that Trump was liable a second time for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll and the upcoming trial will focus on what money damages he owes her. In May, Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages at a civil sexual assault trial against Trump after finding he sexually abused her and later defamed her in October 2022. A day later, Trump appeared on CNN and “falsely stated that he did not sexually abuse Carroll, that he has no idea who Carroll was, and that Carroll’s now-proven accusation was a ‘fake’ and ‘made up story’ created by a ‘whack job.’” Carroll then amended her original defamation lawsuit against Trump to include the comments he made on CNN. Judge Lewis Kaplan said since the jury in the first case found Trump liable for sexual assaulting and defaming Carroll, the verdict will carry over to the defamation case and only deal with the amount of damages Carroll deserves, who is seeking more than $10 million in damages. (CNN / CNBC / Washington Post / NBC News / ABC News / Wall Street Journal)

3/ The judge presiding over the Georgia election interference case against Trump and his 18 co-defendants said he’s “very skeptical” of the plan...

1/ A federal court struck down Alabama’s congressional map. The three-judge panel wrote that it was “deeply troubled” that the state legislature refused to comply with the Voting Rights Act and a Supreme Court order to create a second district with either a Black majority “or something quite close to it” to give Black voters an opportunity to elect a representative of their choice. Nevertheless, the Republican-controlled legislature approved a new map with just one majority-Black seat and increased the share of Black voters in one of the state’s six majority-white congressional districts to about 40%, from about 30%. For the 2024 elections, the judges ordered that a new map be independently drawn, stripping the Republican-controlled legislature of the responsibility because it “ultimately did not even nurture the ambition to provide the required remedy.” State Republicans are expected to appeal the decision. (NPR / Associated Press / Politico / NBC News / New York Times / Washington Post / CNN)

2/ All 19 defendants have pleaded not guilty in the Georgia election interference case and waived their in-person arraignment. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has accused Trump and 18 co-conspirators of racketeering for taking part in a scheme to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. Mark Meadows and four others are also seeking to move the charges against them out of state court and into federal court, where the indictment could potentially be dismissed. They claim they’re immune from state prosecution because their actions were performed in his capacity as a federal official. (ABC News / CNN / NBC News / NPR / Associated Press)

3/ The former leader of the Proud Boys was sentenced to 22 years in prison after being convicted of seditious conspiracy for organizing the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 and leading the failed plot to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power. It is the longest sentence yet among the more than 1,100 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack, surpassing the 18 years given to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was also convicted of seditious conspiracy. Federal prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 33 years in fede...

1/ Trump pleaded not guilty to 13 felony charges alleging his role in a criminal conspiracy to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia – it’s the fourth time Trump has formally denied criminal charges this year. Trump also waived his right to an in-person arraignment hearing and asked a judge to sever his case from his co-defendants, who want a speedy trial. Trump’s lawyers argued that Trump wouldn’t have “sufficient time” to prepare if his trial begins Oct. 23, adding that it would “violate President Trump’s federal and state constitutional rights to a fair trial and due process of law.” (CBS News / CNBC / CNN / Politico / Bloomberg / Atlanta Journal-Constitution / NBC News / Associated Press / Washington Post / New York Times)

2/ New York’s attorney general asked a judge for a partial summary judgment against Trump in her $250 million lawsuit accusing the Trump family and Trump Organization of fraudulently overvaluing their assets by billions of dollars. Attorney General Letitia James cited what she called a “mountain of undisputed evidence” that Trump had “grossly and materially inflated” his net worth by between $812 million and $2.2 billion each year between 2011 and 2021. Trump is scheduled for a civil trial in New York in October, and James’ office is seeking $250 million and sanctions that would bar Trump, Eric Trump or Trump Jr. from doing business in the state. (New York Times / CNBC / CBS News / Bloomberg)

3/ Justice Clarence Thomas disclosed that he took three private jet trips in 2020, which were paid for by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow. While Thomas didn’t amend any past reports to list previously undisclosed private flights or hospitality from Crow, he did acknowledge that he’d “inadvertently omitted” bank accounts now valued at more than $100,000 from his financial disclosures dating back to 2017. Thomas claimed it was due to “a misinterpretation of the rules.” Thomas also said he flew on a private jet in May because of “increased security risk” following the leak of the Dobbs opinion overturning Roe v. Wade days earlier. (CNN / Washington Post / ...

1/ Georgia Senate Republicans are considering ways to punish District Attorney Fani Willis for indicting Trump and 18 other defendants, saying “we believe she is definitely tainted.” State Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch threatened hold legislative hearings to investigate Willis, accusing her of “politicizing” her 51-count indictment accusing Trump and 18 co-defendants of a “criminal enterprise” to reverse the 2020 election results. Gooch also suggested that Republicans could take advantage of a new law, Senate Bill 92, which allows a state panel to investigate and remove prosecutors. He called it a powerful “tool in the toolbox.” Meanwhile, Georgia state Senator Colton Moore suggested that a civil war could break out over Trump’s prosecution, saying “we’ve got 19 people who are facing the rest of their life in prison because they spoke out against an election.” In a separate interview, Moore called Willis a “domestic threat.” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution / HuffPost / Associated Press)

2/ A federal judge ruled that Rudy Giuliani was liable for defaming two Georgia election workers when he repeatedly accused them of manipulating ballots while counting votes in Atlanta during the 2020 election. U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell imposed the default judgment and monetary punishment after Giuliani repeatedly failed to comply with her orders to turn over documents and other evidence. Howell accused Giuliani of “willful […] misconduct” and “slippery” statements in violating her orders to preserve and produce relevant evidence. The ruling means the case will now proceed to a trial to determine how much Giuliani will have to pay in damages to the two election workers. (CNBC / CNN / New York Times / Politico)

3/ Mitch McConnell – again – froze during a news conference and was unable to respond for more than 30 seconds after being asked if he would run for re-election. McConnell chuckled and began to answer the question when he abruptly stopped speaking, standing motionless and staring ahead for more than 30 seconds. When an aide stepped in to ask if he’d heard the question, McConnell remained unresponsive. “I’m sorry you all, we’re gonna need a minute,” the aide told reporters. In July, McConnell froze and went silent for 19 seconds before being escorted away from the cameras. He returned shortly afterward and continued his news conference, claiming he’s “fine.” The 81-year-old, however, fell two weeks prior to the July incident and has been using a wheelchair periodically to get around. McConnell also suffered a concussion after falling down earlier this year. (New York Times / NBC News / CNN /

1/ The Biden administration named the first 10 medicines that will be subject to price negotiations between Medicare and pharmaceutical companies under the Inflation Reduction Act. The medications are some of the most widely used and costliest drugs older Americans use for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and autoimmune conditions. Medicare spent $50.5 billion on the drugs last year, and the negotiations are projected to save the government an estimated $98.5 billion over a decade. Makers of the drugs have 30 days to participate in the negotiations or face excise taxes. As a provision of IRA mandates that a certain number of drugs will be added annually to the negotiations. (Politico / NBC News / New York Times / CNN / ABC News / Washington Post / CNBC / Wall Street Journal / USA Today)

2/ Hurricane Idalia strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane as it moved over record-warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico. Idalia is expected to make landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a major Category 3 storm with continuous winds between 111-129 mph. The National Weather Service is warning that the surge will be anywhere from “devastating to catastrophic,” leading to an “extreme life-threatening” situation for anyone in the storm’s path. The water temperatures around southern Florida climbed to 100 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas this summer – a possible world record for sea surface temperatures – and temperatures in the Gulf overall have been record-warm. Warmer waters allow for what’s known as rapid intensification, a phenomenon where a storm’s wind speed increases at least 35 mph within 24 hours. Water temperatures along Idalia’s predicted path are close to 90F. (CNN / New York Times / Washington Post / NBC News / Bloomberg / Axios)

3/ Air pollution is more dangerous to the health of the average person on planet Earth than smoking or alcohol, according to a benchmark study by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. The annual Air Quality Life Index reported that fine particulate air pollution — i.e. vehicle and industrial emissions, wildfires and more — remain the “greatest external threat to public health.” Fine particulate mat...