Washington, DC

1. Fed independence questions
2. Trump’s mail-in ballot reaction
3. Iran talks restart
4. Comcast ditches studio for pipes
5. US increases aid to Venezuela

Comcast shares ▲ 4.5% after it announced a spinoff of NBCUniversal and Sky.

View: SCOTUS punts on future Fed firings

The Supreme Court left the door open for President Donald Trump to try firing Federal Reserve officials even as it blocked him from removing Fed Gov. Lisa Cook over mortgage fraud allegations. Justices ruled this morning that the president can dismiss members of most independent agencies without cause, but that the US central bank is different — and that besides, the administration had denied Cook due process. But the majority skirted the question of what, exactly, could serve as grounds for future Fed firings, writing that it “need not fully demarcate the contours of ‘cause’ today.” “It remains to be seen if [Trump] tried to take a second swing at removing a Fed governor … how he would fare in that case,” said Graham Steele, a former Biden-era Treasury Department official. Trump is already signaling a desire to try again, pledging to “take appropriate action immediately.”

Trump doubles down on election bill after SCOTUS loss

The Supreme Court’s decisions today weren’t limited to the independence of federal agencies: Justices also ruled that the right to privacy extends to cellphone location history; declined to hear Trump’s appeal of the $5 million E. Jean Carroll judgment against him for sexual abuse and defamation; and dealt Trump a blow by upholding a mail voting law. Trump responded to the mail-in ballot ruling by urging Congress to advance his voter ID bill: “In light of the tremendous loss in the Supreme Court,” it is “more important than ever to pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” Trump wrote, singling out five Republican senators as “Hold Outs.” The court upheld a Mississippi election law allowing mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrive within five days, preserving similar laws in more than a dozen states ahead of the midterm elections.

— Lauren Morganbesser

US negotiators head to Doha

The US and Iran are heading back to the negotiating table, with special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner expected to hold talks in Doha tomorrow. Trump confirmed the details in all capital letters on Truth Social today, noting that Iran asked for the meeting. The news comes after several days of tit-for-tat fire, which pushed crude oil prices higher today after steady, consistent declines. The ceasefire tests are the result of a new Iranian position that the regime should be responsible for management of the Strait of Hormuz, including potentially charging fees or tolls to use the thoroughfare. The US has called any such scheme a nonstarter, but Iran’s persistence is testing the line.

View: Media conglomerates make little sense in Trump era

The Comcast empire is breaking up, and it’s not because the conglomerate model is dead — as SpaceX, Amazon, and Nvidia have all shown — but because a specific version doesn’t work in the Trump era. In general, there’s no upside to owning the pipes and the studio, and if you’re trying to survive and grow, why bother with the political, regulatory, and public relations headaches that owning a media company brings under this administration? They were worth it when scaled media businesses threw off gushers of cash and provided a cultural imprimatur that few other assets could. But CEO Brian Roberts has served as the target of Trump’s ire so many times that it’s become hard to get deals done in what Goldman Sachs President John Waldron has termed an era of “endgame consolidating.”

US increases Venezuela aid

The Trump administration has committed over $300 million in funding to help Venezuela in the aftermath of the deadly earthquakes earlier this month. The number includes partner funding from organizations like the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The administration says it also deployed four Type I Urban Search and Rescue teams — composed of over 300 first responders — to the country. The death toll in Venezuela continues to mount, with the number nearing 1,500, and US officials say they’re focused on everything from logistics to medical care and infrastructure repairs. Three American citizens have been confirmed dead in the wake of the natural disaster, and 12 others remain missing, one official said.

— Shelby Talcott

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Congress

• Twenty trade groups led by the US Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to the House Rules Committee expressing “strong opposition” to a proposed amendment to annual defense policy legislation because it would bar defense contractors from stock buybacks.
• The Senate Ethics Committee dismissed a complaint alleging misconduct by Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., after an investigation. — NBC News
• Rep. Tom Kean, R-N.J., will address his long medical absence tomorrow. — CNN

National Security

• The Pentagon appointed a new 15-person Defense Policy Board led by Robert Lighthizer, with venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Blake Masters among its members.
• New Pentagon rules are prompting Washington lobbying firms to drop Chinese tech clients like Alibaba and Tencent to avoid jeopardizing their work with US defense contractors.

Courts

• Two former NBA players, an agent, and three others were charged by federal prosecutors in a sports betting scheme that allegedly involved manipulating players’ performances to profit from bets.
• Conservative law professor John Yoo will serve as a part-time consultant on the Justice Department’s review of how federal authorities conducted the inquiry into the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.
• In her annual financial disclosure, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor reported that she received concert tickets worth more than $4,000 from singer Bad Bunny’s record label.

Technology

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom struck an agreement with Anthropic to expand the use of Claude products across California’s government at a discount. — Politico

Polls

• Graham Platner, with 49% support, led a New York Times/Portland Press Herald/Siena poll of the Maine Senate race, slightly ahead of Sen. Susan Collins’ 47%.

World

• Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia is willing to continue peace talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner but refused to halt long-range strikes on Ukraine.
• The UN said at least 28 civilians were killed in Pakistani airstrikes on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

Health

• Medicare will begin covering GLP-1 drugs for the first time on Wednesday.

Environment

• While buyers are shifting away from electric vehicles, hybrid vehicle sales have increased 80% from 2023 to 2026. — WaPo

— Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the majority opinion in Trump v. Cook.

Laura McGann, editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor, and Morgan Chalfant, Washington briefing editor

Graph Massara and Lauren Morganbesser, copy editors

Contact our reporters:

Burgess Everett, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott, Nicholas Wu, David Weigel