The death toll from catastrophic flooding in Nepal and China passed 1,000 on Tuesday, authorities said, as rescue teams worked to reach communities cut off by the disaster.

Nepal’s disaster agency said Tuesday that 987 deaths had been counted there, with 3,916 people missing, including 583 foreigners. Chinese authorities reported 16 deaths in their most recent update on Sunday.

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Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed highlighted the Trump administration’s hypocrisy regarding the treatment of political spouses during a CNN interview on Monday. His comments were in response to Vice President JD Vance criticizing him for mentioning second lady Usha Vance in a recent social media statement.

“Keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth,” Vance said during a Michigan campaign event on Monday.

“Look, I’d rather not talk about spouses at all,” El-Sayed said on CNN. “The truth of the matter is that Donald Trump, almost as soon as I was nominated, tweeted a picture of me and my wife relative to him and his wife, trying to highlight the fact that my wife wears a hijab, as if to make an argument that that’s somehow less American.”

He went on to note that Trump and Vance often employ an “interesting” and contradictory dynamic.

“Donald Trump says one thing, i.e., data centers or tweets a picture of my wife, and then JD Vance pretends like it would be impossible for anybody ever to do something like that,” El-Sayed said. “So, I’d like them to actually face down their own hypocrisy.”

Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed dismissed the ugly comments Vice President JD Vance made at a Michigan campaign rally on Monday as a “distraction,” and levied his own critiques of the Trump administration.

Vance said “there’s something about Abdul El-Sayed that is very, very evil,” and criticized people who “see themselves as fighting for one group at the expense of others.” Vance also cited the Democrat’s ties to progressive streamer Hasan Piker and past statements El-Sayed has made about an attack on a Michigan synagogue in March.

El-Sayed was asked about those comments during a Monday night CNN interview.

“Well, let me tell you what’s evil. Evil is the idea of starting wars when there is peace. Evil is the idea of stripping away people’s health care when they absolutely have no other option,” El-Sayed said. “What’s evil is to do that so that you can pass a tax cut for billionaires. What’s evil is putting a data center that people don’t want in their backyard despite them. What’s evil is corrupting yourself because you want a little bit more power.”

“And at the end of the day, this whole conversation, frankly, it’s a distraction,” El-Sayed added. “It’s a distraction from [what] Michiganders are really worried about. They’re worried that they can’t afford their gas because of this trade war with Canada, or because of this hot war with Iran that they got us into.”

El-Sayed also addressed his past response to the synagogue attack. At the time, he stressed that there was “never a justification for attacking innocent people,” but noted that “hurt people hurt people” and that violence was a “cycle.” El-Sayed also said that the perpetrator had lost family in an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon.

His statement prompted pushback from some Jewish community leaders, who said that El-Sayed’s remarks appeared to provide a justification for the attack.

El-Sayed said he felt the need to issue an apology after hearing how those comments “caused a lot of pain,” and noted that expressing such regret underscored the difference between him and Trump.

“I’m big enough to apologize when I make mistakes,” El-Sayed said. “I understand that…it’s not what people wanted to hear at the time. You’ve got a president and a vice president right now that just double down every single time they get caught in an error for which all the rest of us have to pay.”

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, the latest top military official to leave his post, personally warned President Donald Trump about issues that the Army was facing under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership, according to a report from The Atlantic, which cited four anonymous sources familiar with the conversation.

Driscoll reportedly discussed the staggering number of top generals and officers who had been ousted or passed over for promotions during Hegseth’s tenure, and noted that this had inhibited the Army’s ability to transform itself moving forward.

On Monday, Driscoll joined the ranks of military leaders who have tendered their resignation during the second Trump term.

Read more from The Atlantic:

The Florida Department of Transportation on Monday moved to ban local police agencies from placing Flock or license plate reader systems on state highways.

All law enforcement groups have 30 days to remove any cameras, FDOT chief operating officer Will Watts said in a memo issued Monday.

The memo also stated that the recent increase “in deployments along our roadways, coupled with concerning reports of misuse, data privacy concerns and surveillance schemes merit immediate action to preserve Floridians’ sovereignty and quality of life.”

The announcement comes just days after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) appeared on the Real America’s Voice podcast, condemned the increase in Flock cameras across the state and warned that these companies sell citizens’ data.

“I don’t want to live in a state where we’re surveilled every time we take a breath,” he said.

President Donald Trump is putting more than a quarter of a million dollars toward renovating the White House bowling alley -- the latest in a long list of expensive “beautification” projects during his second term, Politico reported.

The General Services Administration last month approved a nearly $253,000 contract for lighting work on the two-lane bowling alley named in honor of President Harry Truman.

Former President Barack Obama attempted to renovate the bowling alley at the GSA’s suggestion but canceled the project after backlash from Republicans who questioned whether it was a good use of taxpayer dollars.

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Language that once prohibited political interference in the Commerce Department’s scientific integrity policy has discreetly been removed, NPR reported Monday.

The change impacts each of the department’s bureaus and offices, including the Census Bureau, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Former Census Bureau officials and other experts warned that the move introduces the possibility of the Trump administration weaponizing the data.

The news comes shortly after an unreliable Census Bureau report connected to a pro-Trump think tank was released in mid-August and claimed that “over 24,000 Noncitizens voted illegally.”

Read more at NPR:

Sensitive government documents were leaked Monday by a cybercriminal group that hacked into files managed by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), CNN reported.

The leaked data reportedly related to previous ATF investigations, including many cases handled by the ATF’s Houston Field Division.

The ATF said in a Monday statement that it “cannot confirm the authenticity, nature, or scope of the material at issue at this time,” adding that it “is working with the Department of Justice and other federal partners to assess the claims and take appropriate actions.”

“As ATF previously stated, the affected system was not connected to – and the incident did not affect – ATF’s other operational systems,” the statement continued. “ATF’s ability to carry out its mission has not been impacted.”

The Department of Homeland Security is ramping up investigative actions into voter fraud in several states beginning Tuesday, according to CNN, which cited internal federal guidance.

The DHS push aligns with President Donald Trump’s longstanding fixation on the issue despite research finding that noncitizen voting in elections is rare.

The agency has begun scrutinizing whether noncitizens have registered to vote and looking into whether people have voted illegally in the past as part of its efforts. DHS is poised to “pursue investigative leads, conduct field interviews, and support timely prosecutorial review” related to the subject, according to the federal guidance obtained by CNN.

These inquiries are set to occur in nine states in September and October. They’ll take place shortly ahead of the midterms despite past Justice Department guidance discouraging such investigations so close to the election due to the chilling effect they could have.

“DHS is laser focused on prosecuting and removing aliens who vote and preventing the dilution of the votes of U.S. citizens,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement regarding the report.

Read more from CNN:

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has tendered his resignation, becoming the latest top military official to step down amid tension with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to The Wall Street Journal and CNN.

The two reportedly had friction on several issues, including “the direction of the service and the ouster of numerous senior Army officers,” per The Journal.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and Navy Secretary John Phelan also left their posts this year.

“Secretary Driscoll has been highly effective in advancing President Trump’s agenda to Make America Strong Again at the Department of the Army by providing outstanding leadership during historic military operations, restoring an emphasis on readiness and lethality, assisting with negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, and more,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Journal.

Read more from The Wall Street Journal:

A knife-wielding woman was killed by New York City police Monday after she allegedly stabbed two people, one fatally, near Times Square, multiple media outlets reported.

The condition of the third victim is unknown.

The incident occurred around 4:30 p.m. at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and West 43rd Street. Authorities said the woman had stabbed two people, a man and a woman, before officers arrived on the scene.

The woman, who police described as emotionally disturbed, refused to drop her weapon before she was fatally shot by police near an NYPD substation, sources told The New York Times.

Online prediction platform Kalshi said Monday it had suspended a Republican House candidate after discovering she violated betting rules by improperly trading on her own campaign.

According to Kalshi, Laurie Buckhout agreed to pay a $2,589.96 fine and face a three-year suspension from the platform for wagering less than $1,000 on her own candidacy. She acknowledged the move in a statement to The Washington Post, saying “[I] bet on myself. Literally.”

“It was a dumb mistake, and as soon as I learned there was an issue, I worked to make it right,” Buckhout told the outlet. “Safe to say my career as a Kalshi trader was short-lived.”

Buckhout is running in a Democrat-held area in northeastern North Carolina that became a swing district after Republicans redrew the state’s congressional map to unseat her opponent, incumbent Don Davis.

“Eastern North Carolinians are struggling with the everyday costs of healthcare, gas, groceries, and housing, while my opponent treats a congressional election as an opportunity to cash in,” Davis posted on X. “The news that my opponent was caught, fined, and slapped with a three-year ban for trading on insider information is a disqualifying breach of public trust.”

The announcement came the same day Kalshi said it permanently banned former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) for potential insider trading, citing that he turned a nearly $18,000 profit when betting against his attendance at the State of the Union address.

President Donald Trump snapped at another female reporter on Monday after she asked whether he had ruled out using a nuclear weapon against Iran.

“Well, I would never say that, but the answer is yes. I ruled out…there’s no reason for it,” Trump said in response to a question from NewsNation White House correspondent Libbey Dean.

“What a stupid question that is, actually,” he added. “Here they are, they’re, they’re totally defeated militarily. So now I defeat them, and now I should use a nuclear weapon on top of them? What a stupid question.”

Dean’s question came amid ongoing scrutiny of Trump’s long-term strategy in Iran and followed a Fox News interview on Monday during which he again pledged to hit the country “hard” after it fired missiles at U.S. bases in Jordan.

Trump’s comments were just the latest example of demeaning remarks he’s made toward female journalists during briefings and interviews as well as on social media.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) went after President Donald Trump on Monday for claiming that Americans who oppose large data centers in their communities only do so because they want to be “backwards and poor.”

“No, Mr. President, the 75% of Americans who oppose data centers in their communities do not want to be ‘backwards and poor,’” Sanders posted on social media. “They want a decent future for themselves, their kids and their communities.”

Data centers are considered massively unpopular among communities across America, including a majority of Republican voters. Despite the president’s Monday post claiming the loud, water-draining, energy-spiking facilities will make communities “successful and rich,” Sanders gave another perspective.

“They understand that data centers are destroying local environments and that these out-of-control technologies will likely eliminate tens of millions of jobs, eviscerate our privacy, negatively impact the mental health of our children, radically alter how we as human beings relate to each other, undermine our democracy and threaten the very future of humanity,” the senator wrote. “They have every right to be concerned.”

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that President Donald Trump can move forward indefinitely with building his $400 million White House ballroom while a lawsuit over the matter plays out.

The 5-4 ruling grants the Trump administration’s emergency request to continue construction, after facing lower court rulings that halted the massive project’s aboveground section.

The conservative justices said that the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which filed the lawsuit arguing Trump does not have unilateral authority to construct the ballroom, does not have legal standing to bring the complaint. The ruling did not say whether Trump actually has the authority to build without congressional approval.

“Construction of the ballroom has proceeded apace for the better part of a year. That construction is likely unlawful,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his dissent alongside the court’s three liberal justices.

Vice President JD Vance is in Michigan today to rally on behalf of former Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, who’s running against Democratic nominee Dr. Abdul El-Sayed for the state’s U.S. Senate seat.

Without an inkling of self awareness, Vance portrayed El-Sayed as a religious zealot who would seek to divide people based on the color of their skin and their religious beliefs.

“When you have people who say, ‘My ethnic group deserves something, and yours doesn’t,’ or, ‘That ethnic group is good and this other ethnic group is bad,’ that is how you erode the very foundations of commonality and common citizenship that we need,” Vance, seemingly unaware of what his own administration has been doing for the past two years, said.

“What I’d ask all of you to do is to reject it in November,” Vance told the crowd in closing. “Reject the people that try to divide us, one race against the other. One religion against the other.”

Under President Donald Trump, Vance and the Republican party have openly embraced Christian nationalism, which incorrectly claims America was founded as a Christian nation and that therefore, the Bible should influence politics and policy.

They also got permission from the Supreme Court to racially profile people for the purposes of accelerating deportations.

But none of that mattered to Vance on Monday as he said “9/11” a bunch of times and leaned heavily into Islamophobia, while falsely claiming the mantel of being a uniter, not a divider.

“When I see Abdul El-Sayed campaign around this state with somebody who said America deserved 9/11, what I see is a man who has sympathy and compassion for people who share his religion but have nothing for people who don’t,” Vance said. “A person who will apologize for a murderer, so long as he looks the right way, but will not understand the plight of an innocent child, if that person has the wrong faith. And that is the root of this terrible evil, I believe, in the United States of America that is on the rise.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he is standing by embattled Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) in his reelection campaign, as the House Ethics Committee investigates allegations he abused his wife and young daughter.

“He has been a great member of Congress,” Johnson told reporters on Monday. “He has some issues in his personal life he’s working through. The House Ethics Committee is looking into that and any implications it may have.”

“We have to let due process play out,” he continued.

Miller has refused to drop his bid for reelection despite increasing calls for him to resign amid allegations from his wife, Emily Moreno, that he held a gun to her head and broke their 2-year-old daughter’s collarbone.

A number of Senate Republicans have joined Moreno’s father, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), in calling for Miller to end his reelection campaign.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis’s defense attorney, Michael Sanft, delivered his closing arguments Monday in the murder trial of rapper Tupac Shakur.

Davis stands accused of plotting the 1996 murder of Shakur. Prosecution argued that Davis had previously admitted, in police interviews and his own book, the self-published memoir “Compton Street Legend,” to his involvement in the shooting.

During his closing argument, Sanft claimed that not only did Davis not write the book (which lists a co-author, Yusuf Jah), but that it is also full of inaccuracies — and therefore his confession shouldn’t be taken seriously.

“You’re reading a book that is fiction and not fact, but the state wants you to believe that this is somehow a confession,” Sanft said.

The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against Amazon, claiming the e-commerce giant misled its advertisers with “secretly inflated prices in its online search advertising auctions.”

The Monday complaint alleges that Amazon has “covertly and substantially” increased the prices over the past seven years that a million brands and sellers have been required to pay in order to advertise on the massive platform.

According to the complaint, Amazon has been telling potential advertisers it runs “second price” auctions, where the winner only pays “one cent more than the next highest bidder” for each successful bid for an advertising keyword. But in practice, the lawsuit states, Amazon has charged its Sponsored Product advertisers their own winning bid nearly 80% of the time.

As a result, the FTC says that Amazon may have raked in tens of billions of dollars using this alleged scheme.

“When one of the world’s largest online retailers engages in unfair and deceptive conduct, the impact can be staggering,” FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said in a statement. “Amazon has millions of advertising customers who were misled into paying significantly higher prices. These higher costs were largely passed on to American consumers. The FTC under President [Donald] Trump won’t allow this deception to continue.”

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, alongside 22 state attorneys general. Amazon does not appear to have yet responded to the complaint.

In a new report Monday, the House Intelligence Committee raised concerns about the uncharted terrorism threats posed by the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence around the world.

The committee warned the federal government may not fully understand AI capabilities as the most important data is held by private companies. The committee detailed its findings in a new report reviewing safety recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

“The committee believes the proliferation of advanced artificial intelligence models and the rapid advancement of this arena amplify existing risks, most prominently in the terrorism space,” the report states.

“Preventing terrorist groups from developing access to equipment and expertise necessary to build and use weapons of mass destruction has been a significant point of emphasis for the [intelligence community] and the national security establishment since 9/11,” it continued.

To thwart future AI terrorist attacks, the committee recommended considering how to keep AI out of the hands of bad actors and terrorists.

“Investing in secure AI tools for collection, analysis, and warning paired with rigorous testing, human oversight, and strong privacy and civil liberties protections is essential to preparing the intelligence community for the next generation of threats,” the report reads.

President Donald Trump on Monday urged Americans to build data centers unless “they want to end up being backwards and poor,” referring to the energy-hungry, water-cooled facilities as a “Golden Goose.”

In related news, officials in El Reno, Okla., say a damaged private water line at a data center there wasted more than 3 million gallons of water before it was discovered late last week. According to KOCO News, the business in question specializes in AI storage and Bitcoin mining.

The leak forced El Reno schools and the county courthouse to temporarily close, and forced thousands of residents to go without water, KFOR reported, after levels in El Reno’s water towers unexpectedly plummeted.

“The last 24 plus hours was a very stressful time,” El Reno Interim City Manager Ken Brown told KOCO.

Some 100% of Oklahoma is in a drought right now, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, with 40% of the western part of the state experiencing either “extreme” or “exceptional” drought, the driest of four categories.

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