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US appeals court throws out California, Giffords ‘ghost guns’ challenge

2026-08-21T20:29:00.872Z / Reuters

By Jonathan Stempel

August 21, 2026 8:29 PM UTC Updated 2 hours ago

Parts of a ghost gun kit are on display at an event held by U.S. President Joe Biden to announce measures to fight ghost gun crime, at the White House in Washington U.S., April 11, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

• 9th Circuit says California and Giffords fail to show rule caused harm
• Panel says alleged harm largely predated rule
• Different judge on Monday found ghost gun rule unconstitutional

Aug 21 (Reuters) – A federal appeals court threw out on Friday a lawsuit by California and the Giffords gun control advocacy group claiming that a Biden administration-era rule to curtail the production of illegal, largely untraceable “ghost guns” was not strict enough.

Reversing a lower court ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco voted 3-0 that California and Giffords did not show the rule’s treatment of partially completed receivers, or frames, for AR-15 type semi-automatic rifles caused them harm.

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California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Giffords and lawyers involved in their appeal did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ghost guns lack serial numbers and can be acquired without background checks. This can allow people otherwise ineligible to buy firearms to purchase components they can build into finished guns.

The decision came four days after U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, found the 2022 rule adopted during former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration violated people’s constitutional right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.

Republican President Donald Trump has supported more expansive gun rights than his predecessor, but the Trump administration defended the ghost gun rule in court.

CLAIMED HARM DEEMED SPECULATIVE

California and Giffords objected to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) treating partially completed receivers as firearms only if they were sold with tools or jigs that could make them functional — even though people could buy those components separately.

In February 2024, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen found ATF’s interpretation arbitrary and capricious.

Circuit Judge Eric Tung, however, said California did not show that ATF forced it to spend more to train law enforcement and speed up its own ghost gun legislation, while Giffords did not show that ATF undermined the nonprofit’s core mission and forced it to spend more combating the guns’ proliferation.

He also said most of the alleged harm predated the rule, and California and Giffords could not sue based on “speculation” that wrongdoers would exploit the alleged loophole.

Tung is a Trump appointee. He was joined by Circuit judges Holly Thomas and Anthony Johnstone, both Biden appointees. Chen was appointed by former Democratic President Barack Obama.

In March 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed O’Connor’s earlier ruling striking down the rule, but on the ground that ATF exceeded its authority in adopting it.

Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York Editing by Rod Nickel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Book excerpt: “The Serviceberry” by Robin Wall Kimmerer

August 21, 2026 / 5:13 PM EDT / CBS News

Scribner

We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, an Indigenous botanist, became a #1 New York Times bestselling author with her 2013 book “Braiding Sweetgrass,” about the value of complementing our understanding of Western science with Indigenous knowledge about nature and humanity.

In her most recent book, “The Serviceberry” (Scribner), Kimmerer writes about embracing gratitude and reciprocity in our dealings with nature, and the importance of recognizing and sharing the many gifts the world gives us.

Read an excerpt below, and don’t miss Martha Teichner’s conversation with Robin Wall Kimmerer on “CBS Sunday Morning” August 23!

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I have no claim to these berries, and yet here they are in my bucket, a gift.

This pail of Juneberries represents hundreds of gift exchanges that led up to my blue-stained fingers: the Maples who gave their leaves to the soil, the countless invertebrates and microbes who exchanged nutrients and energy to build the humus in which a Serviceberry seed could take root, the Cedar Waxwing who dropped the seed, the sun, the rain, the early spring flies who pollinated the flowers, the farmer who wielded the shovel to tenderly settle the seedlings. They are all parts of the gift exchange by which everyone gets what they need.

Many Indigenous Peoples, including my Anishinaabe relatives and my Haudenosaunee neighbors, inherit what is known as “a culture of gratitude,” where lifeways are organized around recognition and responsibility for earthly gifts, both ceremonial and pragmatic. Our oldest teaching stories remind us that failure to show gratitude dishonors the gift and brings serious consequences. If you dishonor the Beavers by taking too many they will leave. If you waste the Corn, you’ll go hungry.

Enumerating the gifts you’ve received creates a sense of abundance, the knowing that you already have what you need. Recognizing “enoughness” is a radical act in an economy that is always urging us to consume more. Data tell the story that there are “enough” food calories on the planet for all 8 billion of us to be nourished. And yet people are starving. Imagine the outcome if we each took only enough, rather than far more than our share. The wealth and security we seem to crave could be met by sharing what we have. Ecopsychologists have shown that the practice of gratitude puts brakes on hyper-consumption. The relationships nurtured by gift thinking diminish our sense of scarcity and want. In that climate of sufficiency, our hunger for more abates and we take only what we need, in respect for the generosity of the giver. Climate catastrophe and biodiversity loss are the consequences of unrestrained taking by humans. Might cultivation of gratitude be part of the solution?

Paulie is surprised, too, that I know these berries since they are new to most people around here. As a forager, I’m accustomed to following the voices of Cedar Waxwings, only to find a disappointing handful that they have left me. Never have I seen so many as here, planted by my friend. She’s excited to learn that they are an important cultural food for us, and I can see how my delight levitates her, too. If our first response to the receipt of gifts is gratitude, then our second is reciprocity: to give a gift in return. What could I give these plants in return for their generosity? I could return the gift with a direct response, like weeding or bringing water or offering a song of thanks that sends appreciation out on the wind. I could make habitat for the solitary bees that fertilized those fruits. Or maybe I could take indirect action, like donating to my local land trust so that more habitat for the gift givers will be saved, speaking at a public hearing on land use, or making art that invites others into the web of reciprocity. I could reduce my carbon footprint, vote on the side of healthy land, advocate for farmland preservation, change my diet, hang my laundry in the sunshine. We live in a time when every choice matters.

Gratitude and reciprocity are the currency of a gift economy, and they have the remarkable property of multiplying with every exchange, their energy concentrating as they pass from hand to hand, a truly renewable resource.

Can we imagine a human economy with a currency which emulates the flow from Mother Earth? A currency of gifts?

When I speak about reciprocity as a relationship, let me be clear. I don’t mean a bilateral exchange in which an obligation is incurred, and can then be discharged with a reciprocal “payment.” I mean keeping the gift in motion in a way that is open and diffuse, so that the gift does not accumulate and stagnate, but keeps moving, like the gift of berries through an ecosystem. We ecologists think about the currency of ecosystems in terms of biogeochemistry — the cycling of life’s materials, between the living and the not.

Adapted from “The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World” by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Copyright © 2024 by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Reprinted by permission of Scribner, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC.

Swedish police say 1 dead, 2 injured after school sword attack

August 21, 2026 5:43 PM EDT / CBS/AP

An 18-year-old with a sword attacked a school Friday in central Sweden, killing one person and seriously injuring at least two others, authorities said.

The 18-year-old perpetrator at the school has been arrested, Police Chief Tommy Alriksson said at a news conference.

Police confirmed that shots were fired during the arrest. It was not clear whether the suspect had been injured, but he was being held in custody — not treated in a hospital.

The attack took place at the Brinell School in Fagersta, a city northwest of the capital, Stockholm, while classes were in session, with about 400 to 500 students, officials said.

Vastmanland County, where the town is located, said the two seriously injured boys were between 12 and 17 years old, the TT news agency reported. It did not provide details about the dead person.

Police and emergency personnel outside Brinellskolan during a major emergency response after a man with a sword reportedly injured several people at the school in Fagersta, Sweden, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. Fredrik Sandberg / AP Photo

There was no immediate word on the attacker’s possible motive.

“We have no reason at this time to believe that there are multiple perpetrators,” said Alriksson, adding that an investigation was continuing.

Sweden’s national police said investigators have already carried out two house searches in connection with the suspect. Many witnesses were expected to be interviewed as part of the investigation.

“That’s why we can’t give out too much information, because we don’t want to influence witnesses,” Alriksson said.

Police spokesperson Pelle Vamstad, quoted by the TT news agency, said an alarm was received early Friday afternoon and that police rushed to the scene. He said officers would check any available camera footage for their investigation.

The dead person was found as police entered the school to secure the premises, authorities said.

In a post earlier on X, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called the attack a “serious incident” and lamented the violence in Fagersta “right after the summer break.”

“We do not yet know what lies behind the act, but we know that the police are working very intensively,” he added. “Our thoughts are with all those affected.”

The Fagersta city government said it set up a crisis center in a sports hall near the school. The Vastmanland County government said “many people” were affected and that police, fire services and healthcare workers were among those caring for them.

Several nearby schools had been locked down following the incident, and roadblocks were set up, authorities said.

Log Cabin Republicans, a leading group for gay conservatives, abandons transgender advocacy

2026-08-21T20:35:57.380Z / CNN

Log Cabin Republicans, a leading organization for gay conservatives, will no longer advocate for transgender people, a significant break within the LGBTQ movement as the GOP makes opposition to trans rights a political and policy priority.

The influential group added support for transgender issues to its platform more than a decade ago amid growing cultural acceptance. But Log Cabin Republicans President Ross Hemminger told CNN that in recent years his members have grown increasingly uncomfortable with the focuses of the trans community, including gender-affirming care for minors and the participation of trans girls and women in sports.

“It has gone to places we never in good conscience could get behind,” Hemminger said.

The decision announced Thursday to drop the “T” from the group’s “LGBT” mission comes as gay and lesbian Republicans face renewed threats to the rights they have spent decades fighting to secure, with those challenges largely emerging from within Hemminger’s party.

Earlier this year, a coalition of conservative groups launched an initiative aimed at challenging the legal foundations of same-sex marriage and preventing gay and lesbian couples from adopting children.

Meanwhile, a growing number of Republican officials have called for new restrictions on surrogacy births, a move that would limit family-building options for LGBTQ+ couples. Debate on the right over the issue broke out last month after Fox News personality Guy Benson and his husband announced the birth of a daughter via surrogate. It’s the couple’s second child.

Several Christian conservative figures criticized Benson on X, with some likening surrogacy to trafficking babies. Allie Beth Stuckey, the host of an influential podcast that featured Vice President JD Vance earlier this year, wrote that “the idea of purposely creating that little girl to be motherless is too much to bear. It’s cruel.”

“Allie Beth is a wildly talented communicator. She’s also a f**king idiot,” Hemminger said. “Those people have always been out there. They may be louder at times. I don’t think they have more people than our side.”

CNN has reached out to Stuckey for comment.

Hemminger said Log Cabin Republicans is seeking to distance itself from the transgender rights movement in hopes of strengthening its position to fight for its gay and lesbian members.

“There’s a big difference between talking about two people’s rights to be married and whether your 12-year-old girl should be playing volleyball against biological men,” he said.

Not everyone agreed with the approach. Sarah Hunt, a former board member of Log Cabin Institute, wrote on X she was “disappointed” by the announcement. She pointed to Caitlyn Jenner, a transgender woman and vocal supporter of President Donald Trump who is among the country’s most recognizable LGBTQ+ figures.

“Until now, LCR’s legacy has been inclusion and building a big tent,” she wrote.

The Human Rights Campaign also criticized Log Cabin Republicans, saying in a statement that “the vast majority of us understand that all our freedoms are intertwined.”

“Splitting up the LGBTQ+ community and pitting us against each other is exactly what anti-equality forces want to see happen,” spokesperson Delphine Luneau said in a statement. “Sacrificing one part of a community in the false hope that it will somehow protect the rest of it has never worked throughout history, and it’s a tactic that should be rejected again today.”

Opposition to gay rights has largely faded from Republican campaigns since the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015. Under Trump’s direction, the GOP removed objections to same-sex marriage in its party platform when he won the nomination in 2024. Since taking office, Trump has elevated several gay men to powerful positions in his administration, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Richard Grenell, a special presidential envoy for special missions.

Log Cabin Republicans has benefited from its proximity to the Trump administration. First Lady Melania Trump, the recipient of the organization’s top honor in 2021, headlined a fundraiser for the group in 2024, and its former president, Charles Moran, now serves in the US Department of Energy.

But CNN reported in June that some groups are eager to revive old cultural battles once Trump is no longer presiding over the GOP. They have been energized in part by the growing pushback to trans rights as well as Justice Clearance Thomas’ explicit calls to reconsider the ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, which he made in a concurring opinion when the court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in 2022. Last year, the Supreme Court declined to revisit the issue.

“We’ll obviously have future nominees and party leaders who are more conservative on those issues than Donald Trump,” Hemminger said. “It’s not anything that scares us.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

Pentagon fires U.S. military newspaper leadership

August 21, 2026 10:50 PM UTC Updated 1 hour ago / Reuters

WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) – The editor-in-chief of the Stars and Stripes U.S. military newspaper said on Friday that he was being fired for insubordination and a source familiar with the matter confirmed ​to Reuters that the Pentagon had sent notices to the paper’s leadership informing ‌them that they would be let go.

“According to the notice, I am being fired for stating in a CBS interview that hypothetical censorship of news for service members would constitute a personal red line,” Erik ​Slavin said in a statement.

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The source familiar with the matter, who was not authorized ​to speak publicly, said that Max Lederer, the long-time publisher of the ⁠newspaper who was set to retire at the end of September, was also removed.

In his ​email this week announcing his retirement, Lederer wrote that it was clear that the Pentagon had ​a new vision for the newspaper that was different from his own.

Lara Korte, who covered the Middle East for the newspaper, said on social media on Friday that she had also been fired. She said ​it was because she had told CBS News that she works for Stars and Stripes ​and not the Pentagon.

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The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Stars and Stripes, which has ‌published ⁠a newspaper continuously since World War Two and provides news to U.S. troops around the world, receives funding from the Defense Department but has historically been editorially independent.

The Pentagon recently appointed a military deputy to the publisher for the newspaper. In a post on X, Pentagon spokesperson ​Sean Parnell quoted from ​an open letter the ⁠military deputy had written.

“We may never be able to have the same impact for our service members digitally that our paper had during ​World War II in a vastly different media environment, but I ​also believe ⁠that we can do better — that we must do better for our most important constituency, the men and women who make up the U.S. Armed Forces,” the letter said.

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In his first administration, President ⁠Donald ​Trump reversed a decision by the Pentagon to shut down ​the newspaper all together.

Press freedom advocates have criticized broader policy changes under the Trump administration that have limited journalists’ access ​to the Pentagon, saying they suppressed freedom of speech.

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Reporting by Idrees Ali, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien

Trump makes rare campaign appearance after Darline Graham flub

Published 7:49 PM EDT, Fri August 21, 2026 / CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/21/politics/video/ebof-betsy-klein-trump-south-carolina-rally-darline-graham

President Trump is scrambling to save his handpicked replacement for Senator Lindsey Graham ahead of next week’s runoff. He’s campaigning for his sister Darlene Graham after his endorsement sparked outrage among some Republicans. Betsy Klein reports on OutFront.

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Fauci’s lawyers set up legal defense fund as US probes multiply

2026-08-21T20:40:02.909Z / Reuters

Anthony Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and medical advisor to several U.S. presidents, attends a U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 29, 2026. Anthony Fauci declined to answer questions,… Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tabRead more

• Summary

• Fund aims to cover defense against federal and state investigations, Fauci’s lawyers say
• Fauci receives no payments from fund, which is managed by an independent trustee and adviser, lawyers say
• Rand Paul seeks Justice Department prosecution, while three states have launched their own probes

WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) – Lawyers for Anthony Fauci have launched a

legal defense fund, opens new tab
for the former top U.S. infectious disease ​expert, saying that the need to respond to a growing number of state and federal investigations related to his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic will require ‌substantial resources.

In January 2025, then-President Joe Biden issued a preemptive pardon to Fauci, amid accusations from Republican lawmakers that he played a role in research that contributed to the pandemic and later sought to cover up its origins, claims that have not been independently substantiated.

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Fauci, who led the U.S. response to COVID-19, has denied the allegations.

U.S. Republican Senator Rand Paul has asked the Department of Justice to prosecute Fauci after he refused to answer questions about ​the pandemic at a congressional hearing last month. Three state attorneys general have since launched their own probes against him.

The defense fund underscores how Fauci, once the public ​face of the U.S. response to COVID-19, has become a central target of Republican efforts to revisit the origins of the pandemic and ⁠scrutinise government decision-making during the health crisis. His lawyers say the mounting investigations could result in lengthy and costly legal proceedings despite Biden’s pardon.

“Dr. Fauci is facing an unprecedented legal ​barrage for a retired civil servant, and he deserves a robust defense against these unfounded and frivolous actions,” David Schertler, counsel to Fauci, said in a statement to Reuters. “Dr. Fauci has not ​done anything wrong, and we are prepared to fight back against this shameful harassment of an honorable man who dedicated his career to saving lives.”

The launch of a legal defense fund has not been previously reported.

Fauci, 85, led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for nearly 40 years and advised seven U.S. presidents. He retired in 2022.

During the pandemic, he was a leading proponent of lockdown measures, mask requirements and ​vaccine development that ultimately helped the United States and other countries emerge from COVID. Such recommendations against a novel virus were endorsed by many global health officials and governments worldwide. ​Scientists and intelligence agencies remain divided over whether COVID was caused by a leak from laboratory experiments in China, or from transmission from animals to humans.

TORRENT OF ATTACKS

Yet Fauci has faced a torrent of attacks ‌over the ⁠U.S. response to COVID, largely from Republicans, both during President Donald Trump’s first term and then Biden’s. Paul has repeatedly called for Fauci to be jailed and blamed him for the U.S. death toll from the pandemic, which exceeded 1 million.

Fauci invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions during the July hearing in Congress, citing Paul’s “unhinged” campaign to see him imprisoned.

Allegations about Fauci’s role in the pandemic have proliferated among Republican lawmakers. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote a book about Fauci and has helped Paul’s inquiries.

Kennedy said health department staff spent ​eight months locating Fauci’s private diary on multiple ​government servers and gave the records to ⁠Paul, who publicly released them. Paul and Republican Senator Ron Johnson have also begun to release private text messages from a copy of Fauci’s government cell phone.

David Morens, a former adviser to Fauci, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiring to evade public records laws and conceal government documents related to ​grant research funding and the COVID pandemic. Paul has referred to that case multiple times this week, asking whether it could implicate ​Fauci.

Florida Attorney General James ⁠Uthmeier issued a subpoena to Fauci and said he would investigate whether the infectious disease expert “personally profited off the COVID ‘guidance’ he issued.” West Virginia and Louisiana said they would support Uthmeier’s effort. Fauci will have to secure legal assistance in at least those three states, his lawyers said, in part for document review and production in response to the subpoena.

Fauci will not receive any payment or other form ⁠of distribution ​from the legal defense fund, his lawyers said. It is set up as a trust with an independent corporate ​trustee, according to Fauci’s legal team.

Neither Fauci nor his lawyers have control over how the money will be distributed or how the fund will be managed, his lawyers said. Invoices submitted by Fauci’s attorneys will be reviewed by ​an independent expert adviser, they said.

Once all of Fauci’s litigation concludes, any remaining funds will be distributed to charity, his lawyers said.

Reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Sanjeev Miglani

新闻人间：资本狂欢与王兴兴的表情管理

2026年08月22日 05:00 / 李政辉 联合早报

顶着“中国人形机器人第一股”的光环，宇树科技星期三（8月19日）风光上市。但在资本市场一片欢腾之际，CEO王兴兴的神情却显得格外平静，仿佛只是一个如常到岗的“打工人”。

在上海证券交易所举行的上市仪式上，不少媒体和网民留意到，王兴兴在和领导嘉宾及承销团合影留念时表情极为平静，脸上没有笑容，几乎看不到企业家敲钟上市时惯有的意气风发姿态。

在上市仪式结束后，王兴兴和一众高管乘电梯离开时，也和普通上班族一般低头看手机。面对记者上前询问他对开盘表现的看法，他也只低声回了一句“不好意思”，便匆匆离开。

Vance unloads on El-Sayed over Sharia remarks: ‘That’s not my grandpa’s Democratic Party’

Vance cites El-Sayed linking Sharia opposition to White supremacy as proof the Democratic Party has lost its way

August 21, 2026 5:35pm EDT / Fox News

By Elaine Mallon, Fox News

Vance torches ‘party of graduate students,’ singling out El-Sayed’s radical Sharia law take

Vance singled out Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed while arguing the Democratic Party has abandoned working-class voters, pointing to El-Sayed’s past comments linking criticism of Sharia law to White supremacy.

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Vice President JD Vance put Abdul El-Sayed at the center of his attack on the modern Democratic Party, pointing to the Michigan Senate nominee’s past remarks linking criticism of Sharia law to White supremacy as evidence that the party has abandoned its working-class roots.

Vance delivered the remarks Friday at the Cleveland-Cliffs Middletown Works steel plant in his Ohio hometown as neighboring Michigan gears up for one of the midterms’ most competitive Senate races.

El-Sayed is facing Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers in a contest that could help determine control of the Senate.

Vance spoke about his late grandfather, who worked as a welder for 40 years and voted Democrat because he believed it was “the party of union men.” But Vance argued the Democratic Party has strayed from its working-class identity.

DEMOCRATS’ CIVIL WAR HEADS TO MICHIGAN WHERE PROGRESSIVES FACE BIGGEST TEST YET IN HIGH-STAKES SENATE SHOWDOWN

“This is the party, the Democrat party of graduate students, rather than the union and nonunion workers who make this facility run,” Vance said.

“It’s sometimes actually hard to understand what these modern Democrats actually stand for. But look what they say. Pay close attention, and they’ll leave these little hints of what they actually care about.”

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, left, and Vice President JD Vance(Jim Lo Scalzo-Pool/Getty Images; Finn Gomez/Getty Images)

Vance then turned his attention to El-Sayed, the son of Muslim Egyptian immigrants.

“He once argued, not too long ago, that criticisms of Sharia law were rooted in White supremacy,” Vance said.

“I’d love to go back in time and tell my papa that there is a man who claims to stand for working people who says not only should we have Sharia law, but if you criticize it you’re a White supremacist. That’s not my grandpa’s Democratic Party, my friend.”

Vance was referring to a speech El-Sayed gave at the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) 2022 annual banquet in Oklahoma, where he was the keynote speaker.

El-Sayed criticized a 2010 ballot measure known as State Question 755, which sought to amend the state constitution to ban courts from considering Sharia law in their decisions. The measure was approved by 70% of voters but was ultimately blocked by federal courts.

“The same exact forces that drove native peoples from their land two centuries ago, destroyed Black Wall Street a century ago, bombed a building decades ago and tried to ban Sharia law not a decade ago, those forces are alive and well today,” El-Sayed said.

EL-SAYED’S AGENDA PUTS ‘PERMANENTLY’ CHANGED AMERICA ON THE LINE IN MICHIGAN SENATE RACE, GOP FIREBRAND WARNS

Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Abdul El-Sayed speaks during a unity rally at Renaissance High School in Detroit Aug. 7.(The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“The reason I wanted to go all the way back to the 1830s is because you can’t understand a Shariah ban without understanding the Trail of Tears,” El-Sayed continued. “You can’t understand the efforts to uproot Muslim Americans without understanding the Tulsa massacre. You cannot understand the challenges we face today without understanding White supremacy.”

El-Sayed’s remarks at the CAIR banquet are among several statements that have drawn criticism from conservatives and Republicans who accuse the Senate candidate of viewing politics through the lens of race and religion.

Other remarks generating criticism include El-Sayed accusing Israel of committing “genocide” and describing the Jewish state as an “apartheid,” while prompting concerns from members of the Jewish community.

MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE CONFRONTED REPEATEDLY OVER ISRAEL’S RIGHT TO EXIST, DEFUNDING THE POLICE

Vice President JD Vance speaks during a congressional roundtable on anti-fraud initiatives in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2026.(Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

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However, after his primary victory, El-Sayed said, “My commitment to Jewish safety is the same as my commitment to the safety of my own kids. We have a responsibility to take on antisemitism in all of its forms, wherever we see it.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Elaine Mallon is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business covering national politics.

Walmart to let shoppers use Apple Pay, other tap-to-pay methods starting in August

August 21, 2026 / 4:42 PM EDT / CBS News

By Megan Cerullo

Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.

Read Full Bio

Megan Cerullo

Walmart will soon let its customers make purchases using Apple Pay and other tap-to-pay methods, the retail giant said on Friday.

Beginning on Aug. 24, customers at select Walmart stores will be able to choose a tap-to-pay option at checkout, allowing them to make purchases with Apple Pay, Google Pay and other digital payment technologies.

Walmart intends to roll out tap-to-pay at all Walmart and Sam’s Club locations by the end of 2026, while the service will be available at the retailer’s gas stations by mid-2027, the company said.

“It all comes back to giving customers and members more choice and making everyday shopping a little easier — from how they manage their money to how they pay at checkout,” the company said in a statement.

Walmart held off on accepting commonly used digital payment methods to encourage customers to use its Walmart Pay system, which required QR codes.

Walmart shoppers had often complained that they couldn’t use Apple Pay, which is accepted at more than85% of U.S. retailers, at the company’s stores.

Edited by Alain Sherter