Supreme Court rejects Trump’s plan to interfere with voting by mail
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Donald Trump’s plan to use the Post Office to interfere with voting by mail in the November elections. Trump would have given the U.S. Postal Service the unprecedented power to withhold potentially millions of mail ballots from voters who did not have Trump’s approval. Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas supported Trump’s plan. The decision is a significant loss for Trump, who for years has railed against mail voting with false allegations of extensive fraud, while continuing to vote by mail himself. Trump’s critics described the plan as an unconstitutional power grab. Some expect that he will continue his efforts to try to control the outcome of the November elections.
Sen. Mitch McConnell back on Capitol Hill
Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell returned to Capitol Hil on Monday for the first time after a three-month absence due to health issues. McConnell arrived at the Capitol for the evening vote series in a wheelchair, his appearance noticeably thinner and his speech slower than before his prolonged absence. The 84-year-old was hospitalized on June 14, but did not initially disclose the reason for the hospitalization, leading to weeks of speculation over his health status. McConnell briefly spoke to reporters upon his return Monday, saying it’s “time to get back to work,” but he did not answer questions about his health.
U.S. has put weapons into space
The United States has deployed weapons in space Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said Monday, the first public acknowledgment of such capabilities in orbit. “Today we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats wherever they exist,” Meink told the Air, Space and Cyber Conference, an annual gathering hosted by the Air & Space Forces Association in National Harbor, Maryland. “This is why the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons.” Meink did not provide specifics on the weapons and, when asked to expand, refused to provide additional details. It’s unknown when the weapons were put into orbit. The U.S. is a party to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty that bans nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction in orbit, it does not prohibit the use of conventional weapons in space.
Trump exaggerates Republican convention viewership
Donald Trump claimed on social media that his Republican convention in Dallas last week that featured him speaking had more viewers than did the NFL’s 2025-26 season kickoff game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. The NFL game drew more than 25 million viewers. Trump’s speech reached about 3 million viewers, according to TV ratings. “The overall numbers beat the NFL,” Trump wrote on Truth Social the next morning, long before the TV ratings were available. Fox News, Newsmax and NewsNation carried Trump’s speech live. Fox News averaged 2.5 million viewers during the speech, Newsmax had almost 400,000 viewers during the speech, while NewsNation had about 125,000, according to Nielsen data. Trump also hyped the number of people who were in the Dallas arena, trying to deny videos and photos that showed plenty of empty seats.
Ukraine and Russia deny Trump’s claim
Donald Trump has said that Ukraine and Russia have agreed to stop hitting each other’s energy targets amid concerns over the global increases in fuel prices. Both Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and the government of Russia’s Vladimir Putin deny there’s an agreement. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday described it as “a very good idea,” but did not confirm any agreement, saying instead that Russia was in contact with the American side and “will continue that dialogue.” On Tuesday morning, Russia struck two gas stations on busy streets in Kyiv, officials said, while Zelensky said Ukrainians hit a refinery in Syzran, in Russia’s Samara region. Trump has tried to blame Ukraine for increased fuel prices rather than the war he started with Iran.
Whistleblower reveals Trump administration investigation of voters
The Department of Homeland Security is using legally questionable tactics and relying on unreliable data to investigate voting, a whistleblower alleged in a report released by top Senate Democrats Monday. The investigation is called the “Unlawful Voter Initiative.” It is looking at voter records of “50 states and is targeted at up to hundreds of thousands of individuals,” lawyers for the whistleblower said in the report. The whistleblower report alleges that the agents are being kept in the dark about the sources of some of the data being used in the review, and the process leads to individuals being tagged as unlawful voters even if the agent “reasonably believes that the DHS source data is not reliable.” “The truth is, this has nothing to do with protecting the integrity of our elections,” California Sen. Alex Padilla said at a news conference Monday. “It’s about the potential of using manufactured evidence to intimidate voters, to disenfranchise eligible Americans and even undermine or challenge this November’s election results, a classic Trump play.”
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