First Thing: States given clearance for mail-in voting as US supreme court thwarts Trump

Good morning. The supreme court has rejected Donald Trump’s mail ballot restrictions, capping a flurry of last-minute legal action with voting in the midterm elections already under way. The decision allows states to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes they have used for years. Civil rights groups lauded the decision.

“The supreme court has done the right thing,” said Robert Garcia, a Democratic representative from Long Beach, California, adding: “Donald Trump tried to illegally interfere with our elections and undermine vote-by-mail for millions of Americans and failed. We will keep fighting to protect the right to vote of every single citizen in this country.”

Microsoft has published a provisional “code of conduct” to apply to the training of new artificial intelligence models, taking a step towards limiting the capabilities of the company’s AI as anxiety rises over the prospect that technology companies could lose control of AI products.

Under the code of conduct, Microsoft’s AI models must not consider requests related to weapons development, produce violent or sexually explicit content or help with the procurement of dangerous substances. AI models also should not be built to imitate consciousness and shouldn’t be entitled to rights.

Donald Trump Jr and his wife, Bettina, confirmed that a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin partially paid for the couple’s wedding celebrations in May, following a ProPublica report revealing Umar Kremlev spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the events.

Citing records and interviews with three anonymous sources familiar with the event, ProPublica reported that Kremlev, a member of the Russian president’s circle, footed the bill to rent one of the islands where a reception was held and where guests slept, along with other large expenses, including a huge firework show.

Detainees at Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” federal immigration jail were frequently locked in outside metal cages no bigger than a phone booth, according to a damning government watchdog report that said the practice “does not align with standards for humane treatment”.

The findings from the office of the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security were published on its website and offer rare criticism of the Trump administration by one of its own agencies.

The Trump administration has been “undermining the rule of law domestically and internationally”, while key indicators of democracy in the US have fallen to their lowest levels in 50 years, according to data from a leading thinktank.

We have comprehensive coverage of last night’s Emmy awards, in which Matthew Rhys became the first actor to win multiple lead actor awards for performances in different shows in the same year. We have a write-up of the evening, the full list of who won, the biggest shocks, and perhaps most importantly, a gallery of the best of the red carpet looks.

Chirag Bahri tells his incredible story of being held captive on the Marida Marguerite oil tanker for almost eight months.

Rachel Savage reports from Johannesburg where the Trump administration drive to “save” thousands of Afrikaners from false claims of “white genocide” appears to show signs of slowing.

A new UCLA study using satellite data and public records has ranked oil and gas facilities across the US for their output of methane – a potent greenhouse gas – shedding light on previously unmonitored sources to try to improve regulatory oversight.

As human development and roads increasingly fragment gibbon habitats, a study suggests traffic noise could be altering the animals’ notoriously loud wake-up call.

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