Morning Digest
35 stories from 9 sources, 156 more held back.
Today, Raw America managing editor Carl Gibson sat down with Ellie Leonard of The Panicked Writer Substack and Kait Justice of the Downwind of Truth Substack. Ellie and Kait are two leading independent researchers covering the Jeffrey Epstein saga who have been digging deep into evidence most legacy outlets still haven’t touched.
Former federal officials are revealing that the White House already has a secure nuclear bunker, which undermines Donald Trump’s main argument for his $600 million ballroom. A Pentagon spokesperson just admitted that it keeps a secret blacklist of journalists who ask questions it doesn’t like.
Mary Peltola launches her campaign as a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S., January 17, 2026. John here, and this is the Sunday Wrapup. This week, Democrats saw their chances of retaking the Senate — which seemed like a pipe dream just a year ago — significantly improve, all thanks to a handful of Senate races in red states.
A Florida man who pleaded guilty to hacking election systems has apparently landed a job at Donald Trump’s Justice Department, just as the DOJ announces plans to send an army of “election observers” to polling places. American cattle ranchers are furious at Trump’s new plan to flood the market with cheap imported beef, warning it could “crash” their industry.
U.S. Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks to supporters and the media during a campaign rally in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., August 2, 2026.
Like other global automakers, XPeng Motors is branching into humanoid robots. The electric vehicle manufacturer today said that its Dogotix robotics unit has raised more than $900 million in its initial funding round, bringing its pre-money valuation to $5 billion and post-transaction valuation to more than $6.3 billion.
While a digital twin does not necessarily replace a systems integrator, it can help manufacturers evaluate robots and plan applications, says RoboDK.
The addition of physical AI to the workforce requires more key performance indicators than throughput, according to the president of HireArt.
Improvements in AI, satellite navigation, and machine vision are helping robotic lawn mowers spread in the U.S., writes Sunseeker's founder.
Roby Lynn explains how R2 Labs bridges PLCs, robots, and AI to unify fragmented manufacturing systems.
Appointing Darline Graham to simply finish her brother Lindsey’s Senate term was one thing, but having her run for the next term, with Donald Trump’s support, is simply bonkers. Or does Trump know something we don’t?
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has barred Russian teams from returning to the Chess Olympiad next month, prompting prominent names in Russian chess to accuse its leadership of politicizing the sport and making “Russophobic” decisions.
Russia just pulled its ambassador to the UK, as British Prime Minister Andy Burnham doubles down on open involvement in the Ukraine conflict. The risk of open war has never been higher, but Burnham is writing checks that he can’t cash.
US unveils ‘economic onslaught’ against Iran. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has announced new sanctions against Iran, and threatened to boot any country dealing financially with Tehran out of the US dollar system, in a bid to make Iran an “economic outcast.”
LONDON -- We've seen plenty of false dawns at Chelsea. But whatever happens under new coach Xabi Alonso in a sport of rare guarantees, one thing's for sure: it'll be fun. In the club's opener of the new Premier League season, this was a rollercoaster of an introduction to life at Chelsea.
The injury occurred during an offseason workout recently and will sideline Sharpe for a significant period of the 2026-27 season, sources said. Sharpe, 23, averaged 20.8 points for the Blazers last season but missed a large chunk of the campaign due to a stress fracture of his left fibula.
NEW YORK -- Roger Federer is actually nervous about his tennis. The man who won five straight U.S. Open championships during the height of his dominance of the sport is set to play again at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Tuesday night for the first time since 2019. And he isn't quite sure how the game that perhaps nobody ever made look more elegant will appear now.
Napheesa Collier doesn't drink alcohol often during the WNBA season. But she made an exception on a July night in Seattle. Her coach, Cheryl Reeve, met her at a hotel bar after an evening shooting session.
This release of the Anthropic plugin for LLM mainly provides compatibility with the recently released anthropic v1.0.0 Python library, which switches from httpx to httpx2. OpenAI made the same change in their v3.0.0 release two weeks ago. Anthropic provide this migration guide for upgrading to 1.0, so I prompted Fable 5 in Claude Code with:.
Your executable is a SQLite database (via) Farid Zakaria describes a neat Linux pattern for creating a SQLite database file that can be directly used as an executable binary. The trick sets the SQLite file format's 4-byte application ID (68 bytes into the file) to SELF, standing for Structured Executable & Linkable Format.
Anthropic’s best AI model struggles to attract users as cheaper tools thrive (via) A few interesting numbers in this FT story gathered from "people with knowledge of the matter":. This article also introduced me to the Ramp AI index, which uses billing data from 70,000 Ramp credit card using companies to estimate model adoption.
Prior to Fable, it felt silly to waste too much time improving your coding harness or context strategies. A new model would arrive at the same price (or cheaper!) and paper over most of your problems. It was (and still is!) incredible.
Congratulations, at last, to the Brewers who, for the first time all season, are atop these Power Rankings. They’re actually the fourth team to hold the No. 1 spot this year, and the others are, like them, from the National League: The Dodgers (who had been No. 1 for the past two months before this week), the Braves and, for one week back in May, the Cubs.
This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian’s Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
SEATTLE – There was a text message from Alex Bregman back in May that buzzed the phone of Cubs manager Craig Counsell. The veteran third baseman wanted to explain the plan he had for getting his season back on track in the batter’s box. If Bregman appeared passive with his approach, it was because he was working on regaining the proper feel with the load in his swing.
SEATTLE -- Ian Happ walked for five steps out of the box, his bat still in his right hand, as he watched the flight of the ball he just sent towering over the right-field line. After it caromed off the pole at T-Mobile Park, the Cubs outfielder dropped the lumber and shifted into his trot.
The Middletown Works facility is considered to be Cleveland-Cliffs’ flagship plant for producing automotive steel, with the capacity to produce 3 million tons of raw steel per year. The project would maintain current production levels while “improving operational reliability, productivity, energy efficiency, and cost competitiveness,” the company said in a news release.
The United States and Canada failed to reach a deal Friday that would have averted 50% levies President Donald Trump promised last month, further souring the trade relationship between two of North America’s largest economies.
Manufacturers are increasingly prioritizing energy procurement — including efficiency, fuel diversity, or other investments — amid an ongoing rise in prices. Few industries have been untouched by this year’s convergence of geopolitical turmoil, an artificial intelligence infrastructure boom and federal policies that have contributed to energy cost increases.
Brad Howell had hit a ceiling he couldn't hire his way past. His company, R&D Specialties, is a UL-certified panel builder that's served the oil and gas industry in Odessa, Texas, since 1983. To grow, he needed more skilled labor.
SEATTLE — Cubs left fielder Ian Happ had a chance to join a mighty exclusive baseball fraternity. Only 13 players in major-league history have hit two grand slams in the same game, and after Happ banged his first off the foul pole in the third inning Sunday, he strolled to the plate with the bases loaded again in the eighth. He drew a walk instead of becoming the newest member of the club.
SEATTLE — The Cubs can be happy they didn’t get swept out of the Pacific Northwest by a sub-.500 Mariners team after winning with a 19-2 rout Sunday.
The Cubs have something very valuable in Pete Crow-Armstrong at the top of their lineup. Crow-Armstrong has been perhaps the best player in baseball this season, a true MVP candidate, even in a world where Shohei Ohtani exists. But though he’s been doing remarkable things all season, his latest trick stood out.
SEATTLE – Jacob Webb has learned something about this sport. “In baseball,” the Cubs’ closer said before Saturday’s game, “you’ve got to expect the unexpected sometimes.” Indeed, his season counts as unexpected.
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.
Appointing Darline Graham to simply finish her brother Lindsey’s Senate term was one thing, but having her run for the next term, with Donald Trump’s support, is simply bonkers. Or does Trump know something we don’t?
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has barred Russian teams from returning to the Chess Olympiad next month, prompting prominent names in Russian chess to accuse its leadership of politicizing the sport and making “Russophobic” decisions.
Russia just pulled its ambassador to the UK, as British Prime Minister Andy Burnham doubles down on open involvement in the Ukraine conflict. The risk of open war has never been higher, but Burnham is writing checks that he can’t cash.
US unveils ‘economic onslaught’ against Iran. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has announced new sanctions against Iran, and threatened to boot any country dealing financially with Tehran out of the US dollar system, in a bid to make Iran an “economic outcast.”
LONDON -- We've seen plenty of false dawns at Chelsea. But whatever happens under new coach Xabi Alonso in a sport of rare guarantees, one thing's for sure: it'll be fun. In the club's opener of the new Premier League season, this was a rollercoaster of an introduction to life at Chelsea.
The injury occurred during an offseason workout recently and will sideline Sharpe for a significant period of the 2026-27 season, sources said. Sharpe, 23, averaged 20.8 points for the Blazers last season but missed a large chunk of the campaign due to a stress fracture of his left fibula.
NEW YORK -- Roger Federer is actually nervous about his tennis. The man who won five straight U.S. Open championships during the height of his dominance of the sport is set to play again at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Tuesday night for the first time since 2019. And he isn't quite sure how the game that perhaps nobody ever made look more elegant will appear now.
Napheesa Collier doesn't drink alcohol often during the WNBA season. But she made an exception on a July night in Seattle. Her coach, Cheryl Reeve, met her at a hotel bar after an evening shooting session.
Today, Raw America managing editor Carl Gibson sat down with Ellie Leonard of The Panicked Writer Substack and Kait Justice of the Downwind of Truth Substack. Ellie and Kait are two leading independent researchers covering the Jeffrey Epstein saga who have been digging deep into evidence most legacy outlets still haven’t touched.
Former federal officials are revealing that the White House already has a secure nuclear bunker, which undermines Donald Trump’s main argument for his $600 million ballroom. A Pentagon spokesperson just admitted that it keeps a secret blacklist of journalists who ask questions it doesn’t like.
Mary Peltola launches her campaign as a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S., January 17, 2026. John here, and this is the Sunday Wrapup. This week, Democrats saw their chances of retaking the Senate — which seemed like a pipe dream just a year ago — significantly improve, all thanks to a handful of Senate races in red states.
A Florida man who pleaded guilty to hacking election systems has apparently landed a job at Donald Trump’s Justice Department, just as the DOJ announces plans to send an army of “election observers” to polling places. American cattle ranchers are furious at Trump’s new plan to flood the market with cheap imported beef, warning it could “crash” their industry.
U.S. Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks to supporters and the media during a campaign rally in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., August 2, 2026.
Congratulations, at last, to the Brewers who, for the first time all season, are atop these Power Rankings. They’re actually the fourth team to hold the No. 1 spot this year, and the others are, like them, from the National League: The Dodgers (who had been No. 1 for the past two months before this week), the Braves and, for one week back in May, the Cubs.
This story was excerpted from Jordan Bastian’s Cubs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
SEATTLE – There was a text message from Alex Bregman back in May that buzzed the phone of Cubs manager Craig Counsell. The veteran third baseman wanted to explain the plan he had for getting his season back on track in the batter’s box. If Bregman appeared passive with his approach, it was because he was working on regaining the proper feel with the load in his swing.
SEATTLE -- Ian Happ walked for five steps out of the box, his bat still in his right hand, as he watched the flight of the ball he just sent towering over the right-field line. After it caromed off the pole at T-Mobile Park, the Cubs outfielder dropped the lumber and shifted into his trot.
SEATTLE — Cubs left fielder Ian Happ had a chance to join a mighty exclusive baseball fraternity. Only 13 players in major-league history have hit two grand slams in the same game, and after Happ banged his first off the foul pole in the third inning Sunday, he strolled to the plate with the bases loaded again in the eighth. He drew a walk instead of becoming the newest member of the club.
SEATTLE — The Cubs can be happy they didn’t get swept out of the Pacific Northwest by a sub-.500 Mariners team after winning with a 19-2 rout Sunday.
The Cubs have something very valuable in Pete Crow-Armstrong at the top of their lineup. Crow-Armstrong has been perhaps the best player in baseball this season, a true MVP candidate, even in a world where Shohei Ohtani exists. But though he’s been doing remarkable things all season, his latest trick stood out.
SEATTLE – Jacob Webb has learned something about this sport. “In baseball,” the Cubs’ closer said before Saturday’s game, “you’ve got to expect the unexpected sometimes.” Indeed, his season counts as unexpected.
Like other global automakers, XPeng Motors is branching into humanoid robots. The electric vehicle manufacturer today said that its Dogotix robotics unit has raised more than $900 million in its initial funding round, bringing its pre-money valuation to $5 billion and post-transaction valuation to more than $6.3 billion.
While a digital twin does not necessarily replace a systems integrator, it can help manufacturers evaluate robots and plan applications, says RoboDK.
The addition of physical AI to the workforce requires more key performance indicators than throughput, according to the president of HireArt.
Improvements in AI, satellite navigation, and machine vision are helping robotic lawn mowers spread in the U.S., writes Sunseeker's founder.
Roby Lynn explains how R2 Labs bridges PLCs, robots, and AI to unify fragmented manufacturing systems.
Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.
This release of the Anthropic plugin for LLM mainly provides compatibility with the recently released anthropic v1.0.0 Python library, which switches from httpx to httpx2. OpenAI made the same change in their v3.0.0 release two weeks ago. Anthropic provide this migration guide for upgrading to 1.0, so I prompted Fable 5 in Claude Code with:.
Your executable is a SQLite database (via) Farid Zakaria describes a neat Linux pattern for creating a SQLite database file that can be directly used as an executable binary. The trick sets the SQLite file format's 4-byte application ID (68 bytes into the file) to SELF, standing for Structured Executable & Linkable Format.
Anthropic’s best AI model struggles to attract users as cheaper tools thrive (via) A few interesting numbers in this FT story gathered from "people with knowledge of the matter":. This article also introduced me to the Ramp AI index, which uses billing data from 70,000 Ramp credit card using companies to estimate model adoption.
Prior to Fable, it felt silly to waste too much time improving your coding harness or context strategies. A new model would arrive at the same price (or cheaper!) and paper over most of your problems. It was (and still is!) incredible.
The Middletown Works facility is considered to be Cleveland-Cliffs’ flagship plant for producing automotive steel, with the capacity to produce 3 million tons of raw steel per year. The project would maintain current production levels while “improving operational reliability, productivity, energy efficiency, and cost competitiveness,” the company said in a news release.
The United States and Canada failed to reach a deal Friday that would have averted 50% levies President Donald Trump promised last month, further souring the trade relationship between two of North America’s largest economies.
Manufacturers are increasingly prioritizing energy procurement — including efficiency, fuel diversity, or other investments — amid an ongoing rise in prices. Few industries have been untouched by this year’s convergence of geopolitical turmoil, an artificial intelligence infrastructure boom and federal policies that have contributed to energy cost increases.
Brad Howell had hit a ceiling he couldn't hire his way past. His company, R&D Specialties, is a UL-certified panel builder that's served the oil and gas industry in Odessa, Texas, since 1983. To grow, he needed more skilled labor.