Today in One Sentence. The Census Bureau proposed excluding undocumented immigrants and other noncitizens from the 2030 count; Trump predicted that his war with Iran would end “immediately after” the midterm elections; a federal appeals court in Louisiana heard arguments over the state’s effort to restrict mail-order mifepristone nationwide; an Anthropic researcher quit over “out-of-control” AI fears while another warned that there’s a more than 10% chance that AI “could kill all humans” within the next decade; the emergency slide on the Qatari-gifted Air Force One was accidentally deployed; Trump gave three White House aides $45,000 each in cash holiday gifts; and during a 9/11 tribute, Trump claimed two firefighters carried him to safety near Ground Zero and that he brought a construction crew to help “right after” the attacks despite no public evidence corroborating either story.

1/ The Census Bureau proposed excluding undocumented immigrants and other noncitizens from the 2030 count, which is used to apportion House seats. The 14th Amendment, however, calls for House seats to be apportioned by counting the “whole number of persons in each State.” The proposal would also prohibit race and ethnicity questions on the decennial census and ban questions about sexual orientation, changes that could affect redistricting, enforcement of anti-discrimination laws, and the distribution of federal funds. (Politico / NBC News / NPR / Washington Post / USA Today / Reuters)

2/ Trump predicted that his war with Iran would end “immediately after” the midterm elections as the price of Brent crude ended the day at its highest level since late May. Trump added that he believes gas prices would come “tumbling down” below $2 per gallon, but not until “right after the election.” Gas prices, meanwhile, rose to $4.22, the highest level since June 5. (Politico / CNBC / Associated Press / Washington Post / NBC News / CNBC)

  • The Treasury Department will buy back up to $6 billion of longer-dated government debt – triple its normal amount — in an attempt to lower borrowing costs. By taking some of the 10- and 20-year bonds off the market, the Treasury is trying to push their prices up and yields down, which could help lower mortgage and other consumer borrowing rates. Yields, however, rose after the announcement, with the 10-year Treasury reaching its highest level in nearly three years.(Politico / NBC News / New York Times / CNBC / CNN / Bloomberg)

  • 🟥 Primaries: Republicans kicked off their first-ever midterm convention in Dallas. The two-day, made-for-TV event is aimed at energizing Republican voters and protecting the party’s congressional majorities in November. Trump will deliver the keynote tonight and return for closing remarks Thursday. (New York Times)

  • poll/ 34% of Americans trust government certifications of election results “a great deal” or “quite a bit,” down from 40% in 2024. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults have little or no trust in federal government information about elections and politics, foreign affairs, the environment, abortion, or immigration. (Associated Press)

3/ A federal appeals court in Louisiana heard arguments over the state’s effort to restrict mail-order mifepristone nationwide, claiming that the FDA’s Biden-era rules allowing telehealth prescriptions and mail delivery make its abortion ban “meaningless” because patients can just have the drugs shipped across state lines. The state asked the court to eliminate the federal rules nationwide, even in states where abortion is legal. Meanwhile, in a friend-of-the-court brief, 22 Democratic attorneys general and the District of Columbia argued that Louisiana “improperly elevates the policy preferences of states that have banned or restricted abortion over the preferences of other States that have made the different but equally sovereign determinations to promote access to abortion care.” Medication abortion now accounts for two-thirds of U.S. abortions. (ABC News / Politico / Associated Press / CNN)

4/ 😒 Well, that’s fantastic: An Anthropic researcher quit over “out-of-control” AI fears while another warned that there’s a more than 10% chance that AI “could kill all humans” within the next decade. Jacob Coxon, who trained new AI models, warned that the leading labs are “racing straight to self-improving superintelligence” without knowing how to keep the systems under human control. After Coxon’s resignation, Anthropic alignment-science lead Evan Hubinger added that “We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans” and that “we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to.” (Wall Street Journal / CBS News / Axios)

5/ The emergency slide on the Qatari-gifted Air Force One was accidentally deployed, delaying Trump’s departure for the Republican midterm convention in Dallas by about 20 minutes as crews removed the slide. The older Air Force One slide was brought out as a backup before Trump boarded the newer jet. Trump, however, claimed crews “were doing a check on the slide” because “they want to make sure everything works perfectly.” (CNN / Bloomberg / CBS News / ABC News)

6/ Trump gave three White House aides $45,000 each in cash holiday gifts. According to financial disclosure forms, Natalie Harp, Margo Martin, and Chamberlain Harris each received the payments while earning $150,000 a year. Walt Nauta also disclosed a $20,000 gift from Trump. Federal law, however, prevents government employees from receiving outside compensation for their official services. The White House, meanwhile, maintained that the gifts were unrelated to their government duties and “entirely permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards.” (Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / New York Times / CNN / Politico / Reuters / CBS News)

7/ Trump claimed two firefighters carried him to safety near Ground Zero during a 9/11 tribute. He also claimed he brought a construction crew to help “right after” the attacks. However, there is no public evidence corroborating either story, and Trump was reportedly four miles away at Trump Tower on Sept. 11. In a 2016 version of the firefighter story, he said the incident happened “a couple of days” later. Videos also show Trump was in Lower Manhattan on Sept. 13, 2001, when he claimed to have about 100 workers helping with the recovery, but a former fire official said he never saw Trump there and that a crew that large would have left a record. Nevertheless, Trump later clarified that he was “obviously not on the same day as the collapse, but shortly thereafter” and that “everything I said was exactly accurate.” (New York Magazine / Washington Post / NBC News / New Republic / CNN / New York Times)

The 2026 midterms are in 55 days; the 2028 presidential election is in 790 days.