Good morning, and a warm welcome to all our new subscribers. In today’s edition:

• 🗳️ Trump’s mail-in voting order
• 🙏 RIP Dolly Parton
• 🐶 Why dogs are taking over fashion

…and much more.

Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be a ~3.78-minute read (1,002 words).

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“A good character is the best tombstone. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.”

–Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)

On Monday, the Supreme Court lifted one of two court orders blocking key provisions of an executive order from President Trump seeking to change how mail-in ballots are handled in federal elections.

What it entails

Trump’s executive order calls for new US Postal Service regulations—finalized on Friday before the Supreme Court responded—regarding the handling of mail-in ballots.

Trump has framed his order as a necessary measure to enforce federal laws and maintain public confidence in elections, arguing that state-level verification gaps and mail-in ballots create vulnerabilities for fraud and non-citizen voting which this order aims to address.

Under Trump’s order:

• DHS would provide each state with a list of US citizens over age 18 to help verify voter eligibility.
• States also would provide the federal government with lists of registered voters receiving mail-in or absentee ballots in certain federal elections.
• USPS must verify that mail-in ballots aren’t delivered to people who don’t appear on state-submitted voter lists, with USPS refusing to deliver any mail-in ballots in states that don’t share voter data.
• New envelope design and tracking requirements for mail-in ballots would also apply.

How we got here

President Trump signed the order in March, prompting lawsuits from states and other groups that argue the president is imposing election requirements in an area where states and Congress have authority.

Those challenges resulted in two injunctions from the same federal district judge in Massachusetts:

• In June, the judge found key provisions were likely unconstitutional—since only state legislatures and Congress set election rules—and blocked their enforcement against the 24 Democratic-led jurisdictions that sued for the 2026 elections.
• Then in a separate lawsuit earlier this month, the judge blocked the new voter-list and mail-in ballot requirements nationwide, ruling that federal laws don’t authorize USPS or DHS to act as voter eligibility gatekeepers.

The Trump admin appealed the first injunction, with an appeals court later ruling to keep it in place and sending the dispute to the Supreme Court.

What did SCOTUS actually decide?

The Court sided with the Trump administration, who argued that a lower court blocked parts of the order too early, before USPS and other federal agencies had finalized how they would carry it out.

• SCOTUS’ ruling lifts an injunction that protected 24 Democratic-led jurisdictions from these changes for the 2026 elections.
• But SCOTUS didn’t rule on whether Trump’s order itself is legal, and said states can challenge USPS’s now-final rules if they cause harm.
• A second nationwide injunction also remains in place for now, meaning the changes still can’t be implemented for the 2026 elections.

Looking ahead…Analysts say it’s unclear if Trump’s executive order on mail-in ballots will be enacted in time for the 2026 midterms, given the second injunction and potential legal challenges to SCOTUS’ latest order—though the Trump admin has already asked SCOTUS to address the second injunction.

The legal battle comes as some states have already designed and printed their ballots, with the first absentee ballots scheduled to go out in North Carolina in just 10 days.

📊 Flash poll: In general, do you agree or disagree with President Trump’s new executive order regarding the handling of mail-in ballots?

• Support
• Oppose
• Unsure/other

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BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🇨🇦 Canada announces plans to impose tariffs of up to 50% on ~$20 billion worth of US imports in retaliation for new Trump admin levies; Canadian tariffs on ~700 American products to take effect September 8.
• 🧱 Lego reports record revenue for the first half of the year (+21%), as it launched hundreds of new products; toy company says homegrown and licensed themes—including Formula 1, FIFA World Cup, and KPop Demon Hunters—are proving popular across all age groups.
• 🏘️💸 Share of cash home sales during the first four months of this year was 31.4%, down from 32.3% in the same period a year ago, as cash buyers drop out faster than the overall housing market decline, new data shows.

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🙏 Dolly Parton, beloved country superstar, songwriter, and philanthropist known as the “Queen of Country Music,” passed away in Nashville at 80 years old.
• 🏈🧠 At least 1 in 4 NFL players who died between 2016-2021 had CTE, per new study covering all 878 players who died in that span.
• 🎥 Kate Hudson to reprise her role in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days sequel in development at Paramount ~23 years after the original film’s release.

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SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🚀 SpaceX unveils plans to build a new ~$100 billion spaceport on 125,000 acres in southwest Louisiana, the company and Gov. Jeff Landry announced
• 🦠 Two Pennsylvania residents died of measles, marking the first such deaths in the US this year and the state’s first in 35 years, health officials announce; both people were unvaccinated.
• 🔬 Lab supply companies have been selling antibodies—essential for several widely used lab techniques—that feature manipulated images, providing an unrealistic picture of whether the antibody is effective, new research shows.

US, WORLD, & POLITICS

• 🌊 President Trump threatens to rename Lake Ontario to "Lake America" amid ongoing fallout with Canada, similar to his admin’s efforts to rebrand the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America."
• 🏛️ Trump admin is reportedly preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreign nationals who have applied for or are seeking asylum in the US; it would mark the largest single mass revocation of visas in American history, and likely face legal challenges.
• 🗳️ Sen. Darline Graham wins South Carolina’s special Republican primary runoff; she'll face Democrat Annie Andrews in the November general election.

☝️ A San Francisco couple digging in their backyard unearthed a mysterious 150-pound limestone bust of a woman. While its creator remains unknown, experts say the sculpture could be connected to famed local artist Ralph Stackpole, whose former art school happens to sit across the street.

🤔 Did you know? Elmo started out as a nameless background character on Sesame Street before first becoming a named character during Season 11 of the show in 1980.

📰 Worth a read: Why dogs are taking over fashion in the ‘AI face’ era.

🖱️ What we’re clicking:

• Behold: The hairless he-men of summer
• The online shopping trend where you buy nothing
• Was Anne of Cleves the original catfish?

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Name these poorly-explained movie plots:

1. A teacher travels the globe committing a host of crimes involving theft, murder, and destruction of property.
2. The star of a hit TV show leaves the show and his family to chase a woman he barely knows.
3. A teenager deals with bullies by doing chores.

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