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Top 5 most heated moments as progressives spar over who is further to the left in final Dem Senate debate

Massachusetts Democrats Ed Markey, Seth Moulton clash over progressive credentials while embracing socialism

August 21, 2026 2:41pm EDT / Fox News

By Kiera McDonald, Andrew Mark Miller

Incumbent Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., faced off over transgender athletes, ICE, socialism and term limits in their final debate before the Sept. 1 Democratic primary. (Credit: WCVB)

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The two Democratic candidates for United States Senate in Massachusetts took to the debate stage Thursday night, and both made the case to voters in the deep blue commonwealth that their campaigns are most likely to deliver on far-left agenda items.

Incumbent Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., faced pressing questions over hot-button issues, including transgender athletes participating in women’s sports, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, term limits in Congress and socialism’s growing influence within the Democratic Party during their final debate.

Transgender athletes in women’s sports

Markey and Moulton agreed biological males should be able to participate in female sports, with Markey saying, “Yes, I do,” when asked if that should be allowed.

“That is the law in Massachusetts, and I think it’s the correct law,” he said.

SUPREME COURT MAKES RULING ON TRANS ATHLETES IN WOMEN’S SPORTS

Incumbent Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., faced off over transgender athletes, ICE, socialism and term limits in their final debate before the Sept. 1 Democratic primary.(WCVB)

The question of transgender athletes in sports did get contentious when Markey called out Moulton over a comment two years ago in which Moulton said he did not want his young daughters “getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete.”

Markey accused Moulton of using transgender athletes as “political fodder” and throwing them under “the political bus.”

In response, Moulton apologized for his past remarks, saying he did not intend to hurt anyone and that Republicans were the real enemy. Markey laughed and shook his head throughout the answer.

“My intention is to say, if we as Democrats don’t start making these decisions, don’t foster this debate ourselves, then we’re just ceding the field to Republicans who will continue to put forward this hateful legislation,” Moulton said.

The exchange sparked criticism from conservatives online after it was highlighted by the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) X account.

“Another Democrat senator says ‘it is absolutely essential’ that males should be able to play in female sports. Should women boxers, runners, and shot put throwers have to compete against me?” Crime Prevention Research Center President John Lott posted on X.

“Why do Democrats keep fighting on this hill?”

Abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Turning to immigration enforcement, Moulton and Markey both called for abolishing ICE and holding the Trump administration accountable for its actions.

Moulton called ICE “completely corrupt” and “staffed by thugs,” while calling for their prosecutions.

“I think a mistake that we made after the first Trump administration is not doing enough to hold them accountable,” he said.

Markey said he opposed ICE’s creation from the beginning over “seeds of authoritarianism.”

Casting Trump as a threat to democracy

Both Democrats took aim at President Donald Trump, with Markey calling for his impeachment and accusing him of using the SAVE America Act to “steal” the election.

WATCH: HAWLEY FUMES AFTER 4 GOP SENATORS HELP SINK TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID LAW

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., June 4, 2026.(Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“That’s what the SAVE America Act is all about,” he said. “It’s all about stealing the election this fall.”

The GOP-backed voter integrity bill championed by Trump would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and photo ID to cast a ballot in federal elections and has faced intense Democratic opposition as well as a difficult path in the Senate.

Moulton blamed the Democratic Party and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for failing to push back on MAGA Republicans.

“The Democratic establishment, especially under Chuck Schumer, has not been effective at holding Trump accountable, has not been effective in winning majorities across the country, has not been effective at fundamentally defeating Trump and the MAGA Republicans,” he said.

Embracing the socialist push in the Democratic Party

As socialist candidates continue to gain power in the Democratic Party and win elections across the country, both candidates urged the party to embrace the shift and move even further to the left.

Markey said his party should continue to be “more progressive” and focus on the priorities of young voters when both candidates were asked what the Democratic Party needs to change as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) continues to gain traction.

DEM REP SETH MOULTON SAYS PARTY HAS NO IMMIGRATION PLAN, IS ONLY ‘OPPOSITION TO TRUMP’

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., speaks during the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Aerospace Summit in Washington, D.C., Sept. 10, 2025.(Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“They support Medicare-for-all,” he said. “They know the healthcare system in our country is a sick care system. They want it fixed. They want a Green New Deal.”

Moulton said Democrats need to break from the party establishment and instead focus on affordability, pointing to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as an example.

“I mean, we saw this from Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York City now,” he said.

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6399301722112

Socialists have also gained momentum within the party after scoring several primary victories ahead of the midterms.

Term limits and questions about Sen. Markey’s age

When asked about term limits, Markey, who was first elected to the House in 1976, defended his ability to serve another term, insisting he can “do the job.”

“Well, I think everyone watching this debate can see that I’m more energized than I’ve ever been before and in my life,” the 80-year-old senator said. “Congressman Moulton has a hard time keeping up with me.”

Moulton said on the stage that he supports term limits in Congress.

“I served with some of the most amazing leaders in my life in the Marines, but at 23 years old, they don’t get to run for Congress,” Moulton said. “I think we should have upper age limits as well.”

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The winner of the Sept. 1 Democratic primary will advance to the November general election to face Republican attorney and Marine veteran John Deaton in the high-profile race.

Kiera McDonald is a Production Assistant for Fox News Digital.

AI companies accused of hoarding and destroying millions of books

August 21, 2026 / 3:12 PM EDT / CBS News

By Megan Cerullo Reporter, MoneyWatch
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.

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More than a dozen public interest and consumer advocacy groups are urging the Federal Trade Commission to investigate leading artificial intelligence developers for allegedly buying, scanning and destroying books used to train their large language models, a practice the organizations described as “destructive” and anticompetitive.

In a letter to FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Commissioner Mark Meador on Friday, the Demand Progress Education Fund, Consumer Federation of America and Institute for Local Self-Reliance, among other groups, said the AI companies are buying books in bulk, digitizing the content to train their AI apps and then destroying the physical copies. In some cases, the destroyed books are among the last surviving copies of original works, according to the letter.

Such “hoard-and-destroy” practices, as critics call them, could make it harder for the public and for other AI companies to access essential source material, the groups argue. Destroying books could also constitute an unfair method of competition under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which bars unfair or deceptive acts or practices in commerce, they allege.

“Through their practice of permanently destroying books en masse and thus removing those nonrenewable resources from broader access, AI companies are engineering a future where only the wealthiest incumbents can build high-quality AI models and operate as the sole holders of humanity’s written works — after having destroyed the originals to get there,” the letter states.

The groups are asking the FTC to determine the scale of the practice and how many of the destroyed books are the last remaining copies of the underlying works.

The groups cite an August 2024 copyright lawsuit brought by writer Andrea Bartz and others against AI developer Anthropic, which they accused of acquiring, scanning and discarding millions of print books. In 2025, a judge ruled that Anthropic’s use of legally purchased books to train its AI model, Claude, did not violate copyright law.

Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A separate investigation by digital publisher 404 Media this week reported that Amazon is buying books in bulk, scanning them to train its AI tools and then destroying them. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

Edited by Alain Sherter

People are scrambling to find wads of cash dropped all over American cities

August 21, 2026 / 3:48 PM EDT / CBS News

By Graham Kates Reporter
Graham Kates is an investigative reporter covering criminal justice, privacy issues and information security for CBS News Digital. Contact Graham at KatesG@cbsnews.com or grahamkates@protonmail.com

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The video shows what appears to be a roll of cash so thick it would impress Tony Soprano. White-gloved hands place the wad in an empty Doritos bag, and toss it casually under a tree. The camera pans to show people hanging out in the park, completely unaware of the treasure left in their midst.

Shortly after, an Instagram account called @nyc_money_hunt posts the video, writing beneath it, “Finders keepers Tag us when you find the cash!”

The next day, more than 200 miles north, an unrelated account called @passpassbos makes a similar post: “Here’s a BIG drop for you Boston. Like this reel if you think the patriots are taking down the bills today!!!! 🏈 good luck on this hunt”

Subsequent videos from each account show winners finding the money within minutes, and others not far behind, arriving too late to claim the loot.

Cash drop accounts like this have proliferated on social media sites, sending people running in cities across the country, chasing money left in candy bags, envelopes, key locks, takeout boxes, paint cans or covering things like basketballs and footballs (that the winners also get to keep). They’re tossed beneath bushes, in pipes, taped to walls, left on the side of busy thoroughfares, near leafy park trails, in trash bins and stuffed into tree hollows. The money hunters arrive in sweats, suits, underdressed for cold weather like they ran out of their apartment, or overdressed for a sprint in the heat like they darted from the office, on bikes and scooters, in cars and by foot. Don’t worry about that cop inspecting the garden bed, he’s actually hoping to win the cash.

Sometimes the drops are tied to promotions — for personal injury attorneys, local restaurants, a youth soccer club. Other times the only thing being hyped is the account itself.

Most accounts are tied to large national networks. Some are anonymous, also known as faceless. CBS News reviewed more than 50 accounts spanning about two dozen cities, with over 7 million followers between them.

“This is tied to a larger cultural moment,” said Jessica Rauchberg, who studies creators and lectures at the University of Leeds School of Communication. “It says a lot about where we are right now, where there’s growing inflation, a lot of economic uncertainty.”

Images from cash drop videos in New York City and Los Angeles. Instagram / @PassPassNY, @PassPassLA

Recently, NYC Money Hunt neatly tucked a massive stack of cash into a Ziploc bag and left it in a puddle beneath a Staten Island shopping center pylon. The anonymous person later posted a follow-up video showing the money was quickly found. It also showed a herd of cars and people descending on the lot, gingerly navigating the puddle while searching for the cash.

NYC Money Hunt did not answer questions, but said in response to emails from CBS News, “We’re incredibly passionate about both the brand and the business.”

But what exactly is the business?

Kristopher Groves, president of PassPass, which does cash drops across the country, said the model can lead to a variety of revenue streams. Even for anonymous accounts, local business sponsorships are typically at the core of the business, they can get marketing and first-party data like names and emails of people who expressed interest in sponsored giveaways.

Cash drop accounts with large followings can also generate revenue from Facebook, YouTube and other platforms through the millions of views garnered by their videos.

“There are a lot of ways this content can make money through other channels if they’re really savvy,” Groves said.

In the case of PassPass, that’s meant building an app around the cash drop experience. Users with a basic account can play free arcade games with the chance to win prizes, including cash, and paid subscribers get access to bonus entries for giveaways, travel deals and hints about the locations of upcoming cash drops.

Groves said the app has about 200,000 registered users, and the company’s collection of city-specific cash drop social media accounts (for instance @PassPassChicago) brings in 100 to 150 million views a month.

Groves and his brother Edgel, who’s CEO of the company, have contemplated whether this is “just a fad, because the economy sucks right now.” They think not.

“When in the history of humanity have people been tired of free money?” Groves asked rhetorically, before recalling an instance when he said a guy sped to a cash drop in a Lamborghini.

“He’s like, ‘This is so much fun. When’s the next drop?’ He’s in the car with his girlfriend and he peels away in his Lambo,” Groves said, laughing.

He said the company hit on the model about two years ago, after pursuing a discounts business they thought of as “like a Groupon-disruptor.”

“We were struggling with how do we get people to download the app if we don’t have a Groupon-style budget to acquire users?” Groves said. An “aha” moment came when they tried marketing through cash drops.

Their videos did so well, they decided to build technology around it, “making it a whole community where people who love this on Instagram can actually turn this into a much bigger business and product.”

“People will literally just sprint out of their office, because they realize it’s across the street. And if they get it, they’re like, ‘Oh, I won!’ And they throw up their hands like, ‘I gotta get back to work,’” Groves said.

Images from cash drop videos in San Diego and Pittsburgh. Instagram / @PassPassSanDiego, @PassPassPittsburgh

That happened in December when CBS Pittsburgh tagged along with a PassPass drop in that city. Less than a minute after the drop was posted, a woman came running into the cold.

Out of breath, clutching a box of cash that she stuffed beneath her sweatshirt, the winner, who said her name was Nicole, told the station, “It is a merry Christmas. It’s going to help a lot.”

While PassPass is part of a company with founders who are open about their identities, some accounts maintain complete anonymity. Rauchberg said faceless accounts often succeed because “there’s a mystery, there’s an intrigue,” but also because they lack the overt salesmanship of influencers hawking brand partnerships.

“It’s connected to this larger reckoning of what we’re calling ‘the influencer recession’ or ‘the influencer death,’ ‘influencer cliff,’ whatever you want to call it. Audiences are beginning to realize that influencing and content creation, while it seems to build on reality, is not always real,” Rauchberg said.

NYC Money Hunt is committed to the bit. His videos show only his white-gloved hands and no identifying features or information. He’s racked up more than 400,000 followers on Instagram and thousands more on other platforms. Two people who sponsored drops with the account, on behalf of a local youth soccer club and a Cinnabon franchise, said they were unable to discuss the arrangements.

The anonymity can sometimes be divisive. Some on Instagram and TikTok have made videos or posts speculating without evidence that the drops are fake, or the wins staged. Others lavish the account with praise.

“Is so nice you do this, God Bless you. People need this help 😍😍😍👏👏👏” one follower wrote after a drop last winter. CBS News was unable to track down any of the winners from his more than 100 drops, but a witness to one described a woman in tears when she realized she had found the money.

On Jan. 24, the man behind the account dropped a huge clump of cash into a Juici Patties takeout container, leaving it in a corner of the chain’s downtown Brooklyn franchise, as part of a sponsored promotion.

Store employee Latoya Samuel watched the whole thing from behind the counter. She described seeing unsuspecting people walk right by the prize before a woman came in purposefully and found it.

Samuel said the moment hit the woman hard.

“Oh, she was crying,” Samuel said. “She was saying, ‘I can buy this for my child, I can buy that for my child.’”

Overhearing the conversation, a new employee was surprised and excited to hear one of the drops happened at her store. She said she follows the account.

“It’s just fun. Gives you some hope,” she said. “A lot of people really need it.”

Trump administration moves to end attorney group’s law school oversight

2026-08-21T17:39:43.462Z / Reuters

By Karen Sloan

August 21, 2026 5:39 PM UTC Updated 2 hours ago

A view of the U.S. Department of Education building in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 1, 2025. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon

• Summary

• Education Department says ABA’s law school arm lacks required independence from parent organization
• ABA has clashed with the Trump administration over actions against judges and law firms
• Accreditation advisory committee will consider the matter in September

Aug 21 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Education on Friday moved to strip the American Bar Association of ‌its longstanding status as the federally recognized accreditor of U.S. law schools, deepening a clash between President Donald Trump’s administration and the nation’s most high-profile lawyer organization.

Removing the ABA as the official overseer of law schools, a role it has filled since ​1952, represents the administration’s latest effort to curtail the influence of the group, which a White House ​spokesperson in 2025 dismissed as a “snooty” organization of “leftist lawyers.”

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In a lengthy report released on Friday, Education ⁠Department staff concluded that the ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar ​is not “separate and independent” from the larger ABA as required. The report also faulted the ABA for being too ​slow to revise its rule requiring law schools to meet diversity standards.

A review of the ABA’s accreditation rules found it “out of compliance with the agency’s accreditation regulations and recognition standards,” an Education Department spokesperson said on Friday.

Revoking the ABA’s accreditor status would disrupt ​federal student loan access for some law schools and could make it harder for law students to take ​the bar exam and become licensed attorneys in different states.

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A bipartisan accreditation advisory committee will consider Friday’s recommendation in September, with ‌a ⁠final decision several months away.

The ABA’s accreditation council will “address any misconceptions and clarify the record” when it meets with the federal advisory committee next month, its chairperson, Melissa Hart, said in a statement. She said the council is “confident” it can address the Education Department’s concerns.

DEEPENING CLASH WITH ABA

Trump signed an executive order in April 2025 directing ​Education Secretary Linda McMahon to ​assess whether to suspend ⁠or terminate the ABA as the government’s official law school accreditor, citing its “unlawful ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ requirements.”

Since then, the ABA has sued the administration over canceled domestic violence grant ​funding and to challenge Trump’s executive orders targeting individual law firms. The U.S. Department ​of Justice has barred ⁠its attorneys from speaking at or attending ABA events and curtailed the ABA’s longtime role in vetting judicial nominees.

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The administration’s move to end the organization’s accreditor status comes despite recent efforts by the ABA’s law school wing to assert its independence ⁠from its ​parent organization and eliminate its DEI rule for law schools.

The ABA’s ​policymaking body earlier this month voted against removing the DEI rule, but the legal education council was expected to push ahead with stripping ​the rule at a previously scheduled meeting on Friday.

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Reporting by Karen Sloan in Sacramento, California; Editing by Matthew Lewis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Russian drone strike kills 15 people at shopping mall in Zelenskyy’s hometown, Ukraine officials say

2026-08-21 15:50 EDT / CBS/AP

Russian drones struck a shopping mall in the city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine on Friday, killing at least 15 people and wounding scores more, authorities said.

The shopping mall strike, plus two other separate Russian attacks in the Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions, left a total of 21 people dead across Ukraine on Friday, authorities said.

Kryvyi Rih is the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who described the attack as a double-tap strike, in which an initial wave of drones hit the area, followed by a second wave as rescue workers responded.

A site of a shopping center hit by a Russian drone attack in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, in this handout picture released Aug. 21, 2026. Prosecutor General’s Office via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS

“An absolute Russian atrocity. They’re just monsters,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. He said Ukraine would respond to the shopping mall attack.

Oleksandr Hanzha, who heads the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said Friday evening that the attack on the mall killed at least 15 people and injured 130, including 23 children.

Kryvyi Rih has been hit multiple times during the more than 4-year-old war, with one of the deadliest occurring in April 2025, when 20 people, including nine children, were killed.

Firefighters work at the site of a shopping mall hit by Russian drone strikes in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Aug. 21, 2026. Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Hanzha via Telegram/Handout via Reuters

Russia exploits Ukraine’s shortage of defensive systems

Earlier on Friday, a Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Kharkiv region killed two women, aged 73 and 66, and wounded two others, said regional head Oleh Syniehubov.

Another Russian attack on Friday evening killed four people, including three children, in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region, emergency services said.

Ukraine shot down or suppressed 107 out of 135 drones launched by Russia overnight, according to a statement from Ukraine’s air force on Telegram.

Friday’s attacks came just 24 hours after Russia pounded the capital of Kyiv with scores of missiles and drones in a nighttime aerial attack that killed 16 people.

People look at smoke rising during a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Aug. 20, 2026. Reuters/Oleksandr Ratushniak

Large-scale Russian strikes have become a regular occurrence this summer. Just over two weeks ago, a Russian attack on Kyiv and its surrounding region killed 17 people, and nine were killed in the city two days before that. The United Nations said last week that Kyiv was one of the hardest-hit cities in July, with at least 54 civilians killed and 202 injured.

Moscow’s forces have recently intensified their ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv, exploiting Ukraine’s chronic shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptors, the sole weapon in its arsenal able to shoot down the missiles.

Ukrainian drones hit Russian oil refinery

A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and wounded four others when a car was struck Friday in Russia’s Belgorod region near the village of Razumnoye, local officials said, adding that two of the injured were in serious condition.

Earlier, Zelenskyy said a separate Ukrainian drone attack hit an oil refinery in Perm, about 995 miles from his country’s border. Also struck was the Marinovka military airfield in Russia’s Volgograd region, he said.

The Russian online news outlet Astra reported that the Ukrainian drone had set ablaze a Lukoil-operated oil refinery in Perm. Local officials said damage was recorded at an unidentified “industrial facility.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses overnight intercepted 325 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions, as well as Crimea. The peninsula was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Later Friday, it said its defenses shot down another 211 drones.

Long-range strikes between Russia and Ukraine have escalated as troops continually fail to make significant battlefield progress, analysts say. Troop movements along the roughly 780-mile front line in eastern and southern Ukraine are severely restricted by large numbers of drones and ground robots that threaten infantry and vehicles.

In the past year, Ukraine has devised and deployed domestically produced long-range drones for strikes deep inside Russia, capturing the attention of governments and defense manufacturers around the world.

Officials in Kyiv aim to make the Russian public feel the war’s consequences and pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into negotiating a peace settlement. Putin has so far shown no sign he intends to stop the invasion.

Trump to transform spaceflight from spectacle to status quo targeting 3 launches per day

2026-08-21T13:24:15-04:00 / Fox News

New White House policy directs agencies to expand launch pads, airspace corridors and reentry infrastructure for satellites

By Morgan Phillips Fox News

Published August 21, 2026 1:24pm EDT

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The SpaceX rocket will launch a batch of Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit.

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The Trump administration’s new space policy aims to ramp up U.S. space traffic to nearly three launches or reentries a day by 2030.

The effort would put the U.S. on a much faster pace for deploying satellites that support GPS, weather forecasts, internet access and military communications as Washington races to stay ahead of China in space.

A White House policy released Thursday directs federal agencies to expand U.S. launch and reentry infrastructure to support more than 1,000 rocket launches and spacecraft returns each year by 2030. The plan would expand launchpads, military ranges, airspace corridors and regulatory systems, with the government explicitly leaning on commercial companies to help carry the load.

RUNWAY-TO-SPACE CHALLENGE BRINGS SPACEFLIGHT CLOSER

SpaceX’s first “Block 5” Falcon 9 rocket launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on May 11, 2018. On May 24, President Donald Trump signed a new space policy directive that could ease regulations on SpaceX and other commercial spaceflight companies.(SpaceX)

In fiscal year 2024, the FAA licensed 148 commercial launches and reentries, a record at the time.

The push reflects how space has become part of the country’s everyday economic infrastructure. As more businesses, households and government agencies rely on satellite internet, navigation and real-time data, the ability to quickly launch and replace satellites will increasingly affect the reliability of those services.

The policy comes as China undertakes its own rapid space buildup, expanding launch sites and building large satellite constellations for internet, communications and surveillance. The Pentagon also warns that China is developing missiles, jammers and other tools to disrupt U.S. satellites in a conflict.

China launched 67 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance-capable satellites in 2024 alone, bringing its total to more than 500, according to a Pentagon report.

TRUMP SWINGS FOR MOON WITH NUCLEAR REACTOR PLANS AS CHINA, RUSSIA TEAM UP IN SPACE RACE

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on Nov. 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas.(Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

In a conflict with China, analysts warn that some of the first attacks could target satellites hundreds of miles above Earth. Chinese missiles could target satellites in low-Earth orbit, while jammers, lasers and cyberattacks could disrupt the GPS signals, imagery and secure communications that U.S. forces rely on to find targets and coordinate operations across the Pacific.

The Pentagon has warned that Beijing is developing those capabilities to restrict U.S. access to space in a conflict. The ability to quickly launch replacement satellites could help the United States restore those networks if a space attack disrupts operations on the ground, at sea or in the air.

US GENERAL WARNS RUSSIA MAY BE DEVELOPING NUCLEAR ANTI-SATELLITE WEAPON IN ORBIT

A Long March rocket carrying Chinese astronauts aboard the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft lifts off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China on May 30, 2023.(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

The order also calls on the department, NASA and the Transportation Department to identify barriers to launching high-priority civilian or national-security payloads within 48 hours of need. In a conflict, that could mean rapidly replacing a disabled communications, navigation or surveillance satellite rather than waiting months for a launch slot.

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The plan also acknowledges that a launch boom could create disruptions much closer to home. As rockets take off and spacecraft return at a far faster pace, the government will have to coordinate those operations with commercial and private aviation. Trump directed the Transportation Department to develop a plan within 180 days to integrate launch and reentry management into air-traffic-control modernization and designate priority airspace corridors for critical launches.

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The policy does not appropriate money or guarantee the country will reach the 2030 target. Instead, it creates a government-wide blueprint to address bottlenecks such as limited launch ranges, crowded airspace, permitting delays, spectrum access and a shortage of reentry infrastructure that could prevent the U.S. from getting needed satellites into orbit.

Olympian Jenny Simpson won’t be able to run again after a cardiac event. Here’s what she wants to focus on as she recovers.

August 21, 2026 / 2:44 PM EDT / CBS News

By Kerry Breen News Editor
Kerry Breen is a news editor at CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University’s Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News’ TODAY Digital. She covers current events, breaking news and issues including substance use.

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Anjali Patil, Debby Chapnick

Three-time Olympian Jenny Simpson built her entire life around running — but after a sudden cardiac event two months ago revealed a hidden rare disease and nearly killed her, she is embarking on a new kind of race.

Simpson, 39, had helped a group of girls pace themselves during a milelong run in Raleigh, North Carolina, in June moments before she collapsed. She told CBS News she doesn’t remember anything that happened that day. But Ivy and Joey Pointer will never forget it.

Joey Pointer is the CEO of the company Fleet Feet, which hired Simpson as its chief running officer earlier this year. Ivy is a pediatric intensive care unit physician. The pair aren’t just Simpson’s co-workers and friends: They are also the parents of a child with a congenital heart disease, so they carry an automated external defibrillator. That meant when Simpson collapsed, they had all the tools necessary to rush to her side.

“When I looked over from afar, I knew that something was very, very wrong,” Ivy told CBS News. “So I told Joey to grab an AED and ran over and got there. … I just remember thinking like, ‘This can’t happen right now. Like we have a lot happening soon and that this is not going to happen right now. You are going to fight. You’re going to hold on. You have to wake up.’ And I just kept saying her name and kind of screaming her name, honestly.”

Jenny Simpson after competing at the 17th IAAF World Athletics Championships on Oct. 2, 2019 in Doha, Qatar. Matthias Hangst / Getty Images

Simpson, a bronze medalist in the 1,500 meters at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, had spent the last year on a 50-state running tour with her husband Jason, joining local groups in scenic, far-flung places. If she had experienced a cardiac event without lifesaving resources nearby, her story might have had a different ending.

“It means to me that there was a God present in all of this, my family doesn’t have a history of heart conditions,” Simpson said. “I don’t know that a lot of the time in my life I’m around people that know how to intervene when there is a heart condition. And it’s like I got plucked out of my home and put into this family.”

Ivy and other bystanders performed CPR until first responders arrived and rushed Simpson to an area hospital. She suffered a second cardiac arrest and was then transferred to Duke University Medical Center. Her husband flew to be by her side as she spent days on life support. Waking up was unlike anything she had ever experienced, she said.

“I’ve spent so much of my life and my career bringing people joy, and to wake up and see that the room was full of heaviness and sorrow — that was really hard,” Simpson said.

Simpson was diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, a rare congenital heart condition where the heart repairs damage with tissue that doesn’t properly conduct electricity in the right ventricle. Running doesn’t cause the condition, but it did eventually reveal it.

“When my heart was pumping blood and was dilated, at some point in my life, it was very likely the electricity was going to turn off, and that’s what happened,” Simpson said. “[My cardiologist] said, ‘You thought you trained your whole life for the Olympics, but you were really training your whole life for June 16.’ I trained my whole life for that day — and I won.”

Simpson had a defibrillator and pacemaker implanted, and regularly sees her cardiologist, who she called her “favorite person in the world.” But still, she’ll never be able to run again. She’s still not sure what comes next, but she said her husband and the Pointers have given her space and encouragement as she figures that out.

Simpson said on Instagram she is recovering at home and will continue to work at Fleet Feet. There’s still “a lot to learn about what my recovery will look like over time,” she wrote, but she’s “not afraid of what comes next because I know I’m not alone.”

Simpson told CBS News she is focused on maintaining a positive mindset as she recovers.

“To think that the way I showed up as a person and as a woman with my last mile was in community, taking young girls around the track, I’m really proud of that,” Simpson said. “That’s what I’m grateful for. That’s what I want to remember.”

US health agencies report 55 cases of E. coli and salmonella infections tied to alfalfa sprouts

2026-08-21 7:06 PM UTC / Reuters

By Reuters

August 21, 2026 7:06 PM UTC Updated 58 mins ago

Signage is seen outside of the Food and Drug Administration headquarters in White Oak, Maryland, U.S., August 29, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo

Aug 21 (Reuters) – U.S. health officials on Friday said they were investigating a multistate outbreak of E. coli and salmonella ​infections linked to alfalfa sprouts.

Here are more details:

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• The ‌Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported 55 cases and four hospitalizations across 15 states with ​zero deaths, as of Friday.
• Traceback data show that ​alfalfa sprouts distributed by Everything Sprouts of Minneapolis, ⁠Minnesota, may be contaminated with multiple pathogens and have ​been identified as a source of the illnesses in this ​outbreak, FDA and CDC said.
• FDA is working with Everything Sprouts and has recommended the company conduct a recall, it said.
• This comes amidst ​an ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to lettuce and a separate salmonella ​outbreak tied to jalapenos that have shaken U.S. consumer confidence, with many ‌forgoing ⁠eating fresh produce or dining out at restaurants.
• The CDC said in the latest outbreak linked to alfalfa sprouts, 46 people were infected with E. coli, 7 with salmonella, ​and 2 with ​both salmonella ⁠and E. coli.
• E. coli and salmonella are two common types of bacteria that cause ​food poisoning. Both lead to stomach pain, diarrhea, ​and ⁠vomiting.
• Illnesses started on dates ranging from May 31 to August 8, CDC and FDA said, adding that of the 34 ⁠people ​interviewed, 26 reported eating alfalfa sprouts.
• CDC ​is advising people not to eat, sell, or serve affected alfalfa sprouts.

Reporting ​by Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Supreme Court temporarily allows construction of White House ballroom to continue

2026-08-21T18:12:32.197Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/21/politics/supreme-court-rules-on-trump-ballroom

The Supreme Court has temporarily allowed President Donald Trump to continue working on a massive new ballroom at the White House, freezing a court ruling that would have required construction to stop at midnight Friday.

Friday afternoon’s order doesn’t address the legality of the project, which two other courts have said Trump is pursuing unlawfully because Congress hasn’t approved it. Instead, it’s meant to give the justices additional time to consider Trump’s request that the adverse rulings be paused indefinitely.

Construction has been progressing rapidly, with a 250-person crew working 20-hour days, 7 days per week, according to a filing submitted by the Trump administration to the Supreme Court. The government put the ballroom complex at “65% complete in its entirety.”

The order from Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency cases rising from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, did not set a new deadline, meaning the construciton can continue at the White House until the Supreme Court issues another order.

Because it’s an administrative stay handled solely by Roberts, there was no reasoning, vote count or dissent. Roberts is certain to refer to the case to all nine justices.

Since returning to office last year, Trump, who spent decades as a real estate developer, has sought to remake various parts of Washington to suit his personal tastes. The ballroom project has been the most substantial part of that effort, with his destruction of the former White House East Wing last year to make room for the event space causing consternation on both sides of the aisle.

“This will be the greatest military complex slash ballroom anywhere in the world. There won’t be anything like it,” Trump said in August as he discussed the project.

The president views the ballroom and other construction projects as the foundation of his legacy, according to sources familiar with his thinking, and recently suggested that those who oppose the effort are “very disloyal to our country.”

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, the nation’s top historic preservation group, sued over the project in December and later convinced a federal judge in DC to order Trump to stop with work on the ballroom until Congress gives him authority to move forward.

The judge, Richard Leon, permitted workers to continue building a highly sophisticated bunker beneath the planned ballroom, citing Trump’s argument at the time that the two spaces were distinct from one another.

But as time went on, Trump and top officials have increasingly said that the entire structure was needed for national security reasons, citing attempts that have been made on the president’s life in recent years. Trump tried, unsuccessfully, to get the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to undo Leon’s ruling. But in early August, the court agreed with the judge in a divided ruling that required work to cease starting August 21.

“Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help,” the DC Circuit said in its 2-1 ruling.

“The National Trust has shown, compellingly, that Congress has not ceded unfettered authority to the Executive Branch to dramatically redesign, reshape, and reconstruct the White House – the People’s House – to fit a particular President’s desires,” the appeals court concluded.

Days later, Trump asked the Supreme Court to intervene. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the justices that the ballroom was necessary because of earlier threats to the president’s life, national security needs and architectural values.

“The President of the United States of America is not a tenant, but rather the sole, elected head of the Executive Branch, and Congress has authorized him to renovate, secure, and protect the White House and its grounds, as other Presidents have been allowed to do, without exception,” Sauer wrote, going on to describe Leon’s ruling as “judicial overreach.”

Debate over standing

One of the government’s principal arguments in the case is that the Trust lacks the legal right – known as “standing” – to sue in the first place. Lower courts have said that the Trust has standing because one of its members, Alison Hoagland, has shown that her enjoyment of the White House as an architectural historian is being harmed by the new ballroom.

“The person said she walked along and she didn’t like the view, even though nothing was built,” Trump said this week as he discussed the case. “The woman has absolutely no standing.”

In asking the justices to step into the dispute, the administration revealed how much construction had progressed in recent months. Filings submitted to the court said hundreds of workers were spending “20 hours a day, 7 days a week to keep the project ahead of schedule and under budget,” and that it was already more than halfway done.

Sauer said that among the building materials being used is a type of concrete that is also used at nuclear power plants and nearly impossible to deconstruct.

Lawyers for the Trust seized on that point as they urged the Supreme Court to reject Trump’s request. They said the administration was trying to “outrun judicial review” by speeding ahead with a project that may, eventually, be irreversible.

A decision favorable to the president, the Trust told the justices in court papers, would cause the preservationists the type of irreparable harm courts weighing emergency disputes are typically sympathetic to.

“Nothing in the district court’s carefully tailored injunction prevents them from continuing work on the bunker, securing the East Wing site, or ensuring the safety of the President, his family, and staff,” the Trust’s lawyers wrote. “All the injunction stops is construction of a ballroom without prior congressional approval. Petitioners have not – and cannot – show that being temporarily unable to build that ballroom demands emergency relief.”

A recent review from PolitiFact found that in 2026, the president has spent significant time talking about those projects during public remarks — more than any other topic, with the exception of his war with Iran.

And as the legal fight has intensified, the price tag of the ballroom has steadily increased. The administration initially put the cost at $200 million. Trump said in the fall it would cost “about $300 million.” This month, he said that “$400 million almost” had already been spent.

The Washington Post obtained internal contracts and documents setting the cost of Trump’s changes to the White House complex, including the Rose Garden, a helipad, and other projects, at roughly $900 million.

This story has been updated with additional details.

Trump to honor Artemis II crew with nation’s top space medal

August 21, 2026 / 1:06 PM EDT / CBS News

By Miles Doran

President Trump plans to award the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission, CBS News has learned.

A White House official confirmed the award will be presented Friday, Aug. 28, at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, became the first humans to travel around the moon in more than a half-century during a 10-day mission. They splashed down safely to end the record-breaking flight on April 10.

Artemis II astronauts Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman in Houston on April 16, 2026. Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images

Only 30 astronauts have received the medal, including Neil Armstrong and John Glenn, according to NASA. Astronauts killed in the Apollo 1 fire and the space shuttle Challenger and Columbia disasters received the medal posthumously.

The last astronauts awarded the medal were Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, who in 2020 became the first to launch to orbit on a commercial spacecraft. President Joe Biden awarded them the medal in 2023.

Despite its name, the medal is awarded by the president based on recommendations from the NASA administrator. Congress has authorized the president to present, in the name of Congress, a medal to any astronaut who has “distinguished himself by exceptionally meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the Nation and of mankind,” according to NASA.

Editor’s note:The location of the award ceremony has been updated based on new information from the White House.