Good morning! It’s a busy world out there. Hermione speeds so much that she lost her license, the Obamas are not getting divorced (Michelle just skips events sometimes), and in a somehow on-brand move, RFK, Dr. Oz, and a grocery store billionaire are desperately trying to convince Canada not to kill 400 ostriches.

POLITICS

🗳️ Texas hopes to give Republicans a 2026 boost

If there’s one Founding Father remembered solely for that one bad thing he did that one time, it’s … okay, it’s for sure Aaron Burr. But Elbridge Gerry isn’t far behind.

He’s mostly remembered for his pioneering work in the political dark art of gerrymandering. That is, drawing goofy-looking electoral district boundaries to benefit your party over the other.

The background: The number of U.S. House seats each state gets is based on population. All of a state’s seats have to be equal in population, so they redraw the boundaries every 10 years after the census to account for changes. That last happened in 2021.

• Draw four square-shaped districts, and maybe each party will win two. Draw four squiggly bois, and maybe your party can win three.

Is that fair? Not all seemingly unfair districts are gerrymandered. For example, Wisconsin is a 50-50 state. But all the Democrats are naturally jam-packed into only two of its eight congressional districts. And Republicans regularly get a third of the vote in Massachusetts. But they’re distributed pretty evenly throughout the state, so they never win any of its nine House seats.

• Other states, like Utah (R) and Illinois (D), have districts that pretty brazenly try to reduce the out-party’s chance of winning.

Enter Texas. Republicans dominate here, but Democrats still won 13 of the state’s 38 House seats last year. So the Texas legislature is meeting next week in a Trump-approved effort to redraw the boundaries of their congressional districts. The effort could net Republicans up to five extra House seats in the 2026 elections.

Democrats are ticked. To fight back, California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants his super Democratic state to pull the Uno reverse and redraw its districts, too. But voters would need to change California’s constitution for that. Plus, Republicans already win a lower share of California’s districts than Democrats win in Texas, so getting anything is a steep climb.

Maybe it’s unfair, maybe it’s just political hardball. Either way, we’ll find out in a few weeks which of Texas’s Democratic congresscritters will need to start looking for new jobs next year.

Elsewhere in politics, the White House is sending Vice President JD Vance on tour to tout the benefits of the One Big Beautiful Bill. A new poll has 61% of Americans opposing the new law.

GOVERNMENT

💰️ Will he or won’t he? President Donald Trump is no fan of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Trump himself appointed the guy back in 2018. But he’s since become a critic over the refusal of Powell and the Fed's six other board members to lower interest rates, which they claim could raise inflation. Trump (probably) needs a legit, job-related reason to fire Powell. And he might have found one in the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation project for its D.C. headquarters. Since the plan was approved in 2021, its budget has shot up by $600 million, which Powell attributed to rising construction costs. Trump called the overrun “disgraceful" and said it might be a fireable offense. Markets panicked over the firing rumor on Wednesday, but quickly recovered when Trump said it was “highly unlikely” that he’d fire Powell.

💼 In a shift from an earlier move to deprioritize them, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will allow complaints from transgender workers to move forward. The cases will be held to a higher standard, though, and must be personally approved by the agency’s chair. The EEOC was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Its job is to enforce the law's provisions banning workplace discrimination based on good, casual dinner topics like sex, race, and religion. Questions arose in recent years over whether "sex" includes sexual orientation and gender identity. The Supreme Court clarified that in 2020, ruling that it does.

💊 President Trump signed the bipartisan HALT Fentanyl Act on Wednesday in the East Room of the White House. The law bumps fentanyl up from Schedule II of the banned substances list to the more dangerous Schedule I. It also automatically places new, fentanyl-related copycats in the more restrictive category. The move increases the legal penalties for anyone who makes or distributes the drug. The Biden administration supported a version of the bill last year, but it stalled in Congress.

TRIVIA

Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa — no relation to Wiz — met with President Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday and announced $17 billion of investment in the United States. Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s critical Fifth Fleet, also plans to replace its Chinese-made servers with U.S.-made tech.

Bahrain is an itty-bitty island country in the Persian Gulf just off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Including those two, which eight countries border the Persian Gulf?

Hint: The artist formerly known as Persia is one (hence the name). Then five more. You’ve got this. Make your eighth-grade geography teacher proud.

EDUCATION

📚️ Supreme Court allows big cuts at Education Department

Continuing its string of summer rulings, the Supreme Court this week gave the thumbs up to a Trump administration plan for huge cuts at the Department of Education.

As is typical with these off-season rulings, the high court didn't hear arguments and decide a full case. Instead, justices lifted a lower court's ruling that had paused Trump's plans. Now, the cuts can proceed while the legal challenge to them plays out.

• Justice Sotomayor dissented, arguing the cuts effectively allow the president to repeal laws by firing the staff needed to carry them out.

Trump celebrated the win on K-Mart Twitter, saying he can now begin the "very important process" of returning the department's functions to the states. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon called the decision a "significant win for students and families." She added that the reforms will see resources redirected "to students, parents, and teachers."

• Opponents of the move have argued that the cuts are so deep that the department won't be able to fulfill its legally mandated functions.

• McMahon disagrees and says her department will continue to perform all functions required by law.

What cuts are we talking about? Every Republican president has dreamed of getting rid of the Department of Education since it was created under President Carter in 1979. Congress isn’t likely to agree to that, though, so Trump settled on the next best thing: Slash 50% of its workforce.

• Local K-12 schools are funded and overseen by state and local governments. But aid from the Department of Education makes up ~10% of their budgets.

• The department also makes sure schools are following civil rights laws and, with 70% of its budget, hands out college student loans.

• McMahon says she plans to keep doing that work while also cutting "burdensome regulations and paperwork” for schools and teachers.

But many in the education world fear this will mean rolling back "hard-won civil rights protections." Plus, poorer schools often rely on more federal funding. Large staff cuts could mean that cash doesn’t arrive on time — or at all.

In other Trump news: The president recently gave Russia a 50-day ultimatum to end the war, which Russia rejected as "unacceptable." Trump later met with NATO chief Mark Rutte, a (non-flying) Dutchman, where he promised more weapons for Ukraine.

BRIEFS

● The Department of Health and Human Services is working “very hard” to get clinical tests going for psychedelic drugs like LSD and ecstasy, according to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Supporters say the drugs can help with depression, trauma, and addiction.

● U.S. Army leaders at five bases have one year to find their horses, donkeys, and mules new homes. The Army is axing 60% of its ceremonial cavalry animals and shifting that money, about $2 million annually, toward “warfighting capability and readiness.

● The Trump administration has deported five men to the tiny African country of Eswatini. They’re from Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen, and Laos. But, a spokeswoman said, “their home countries refused to take them back” due to their “barbaric” crimes.

● Indonesia agreed to the terms of a new trade deal with the United States. Exports from Indonesia will be charged a 19% tariff, but American exports going the other way won’t face a tax. Indonesia also agreed to buy more U.S. goods, including Boeing jets.

● President Trump wants Mexico to do more to curb drug trafficking. But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum wants the U.S. to do more to stop the flow of illegal weapons into her country, which she believes helps drive cartel violence.

● Israel launched airstrikes on Syria’s capital of Damascus this week in a move it says is to protect Syria’s Druze minority group from attacks by government forces. The U.S. called the situation “worrisome,” but Syria and the Druze signed a ceasefire hours later.

QUOTE

ANSWER

Well, we gave you two already with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Other than those, the six countries bordering the Iranian Persian Gulf are:

1. Kuwait

2. Iran

3. Iraq

4. Oman

5. Qatar

6. The United Arab Emirates