Editor's Choice: Scroll below for our monthly blend of mainstream and alternative September 2026 news and views. See our News Reports section for coverage of earlier dates, months and years.

Excerpts below are from the authors' words except for subheads and occasional "Editor's notes"

September Update 

Sept. 5

Top Headlines

President Trump and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci were shown models of the coronavirus during a tour of the National Institutes of Health in March 2020 (New York Times photo by Doug Mills).

• New York Times, Exclusive: Inside the D.O.J.’s Investigation of Fauci and Other Virus Scientists, Benjamin Mueller and Glenn Thrush, Sept. 5, 2026. As Dr. Anthony Fauci has faced public scrutiny from congressional Republicans, the D.O.J. has pursued a quieter and more expansive effort against a wider circle of researchers.
• New York Times, War in the Middle East: In Major Leak Hunt, Pentagon Gives Polygraph Tests to Joint Staff Members, Jonathan Swan, Adam Entous, Maggie Haberman and Eric Schmitt, Sept. 5, 2026 (print ed.). About 50 people were tested, an unparalleled inquiry that comes in the wake of news reports about the war with Iran and the U.S. military’s diminished stocks of munitions.

News Roundups

• The Parnas Perspective, Morning News and Commentary: Trump Suffers Rough Night as Court Losses Pile Up, Hegseth Begins Mass Polygraphs to Hunt for Leakers, ICE Whistleblower, Aaron Parnas, right, Sept. 5, 2026. It was a rough night in court for the Trump administration. In the span of a few hours Friday night and today, three separate federal courts dealt significant blows to the administration’s efforts to consolidate power ahead of the midterms.

U.S. Courts, Law, Crime, Immigration, Rights, Justice

A photo of Donald Trump and John Roberts, with Trump in the lower foreground and Roberts in the upper background (New York Times photo by Tierney L. Cross). 

• New York Times, Opinion: Not So Supreme, Mr. Roberts, Maureen Dowd, right, Sept. 5, 2026. In legal terms, the president is an Olympic-class sprinter. He breaks the law so fast that the law is left in his orange dust. Trump is an outlaw. And our system was not built for an outlaw in the Oval.

Lindsay Clancy at her murder trial in Plymouth, Mass., on Friday (Pool photo by Greg Derr).

• New York Times, Clancy Faces Years of Confinement, No Matter What Comes Next, Mark Arsenault and Christina Morales, Sept. 5, 2026. Even as a jury failed to reach a verdict in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial, her future is unlikely to include freedom, at least for a long time. But Americans have been divided over the goal of her confinement.

Trump Team Obsessions, Oppressions, Corruption

• Hope for America, Opinion: Donald Trump’s vanity will be his downfall, Heather Delaney Reese, right, Sept. 4, 2026. At 5 a.m. this morning, an interview Donald Trump was apparently warned not to give went live for the entire world to see. “A lot of people said, ‘Don’t do this interview,’” he admitted.

U.S. Elections, Politics, Governance  

• PoliticusUSA, Opinion: Trump Made His Midterm Convention Free And Republicans Still Won’t Go, Jason Easley, right, Sept. 5, 2026. Trump made the upcoming Republican midterm convention in Dallas free for endangered GOP candidates to attend, and Republicans are still refusing to show up.
• Hopium Chronicles, Advocacy and Opinion: We Need To Turn Their Furious, Desperate Cheating Into Righteous Anger And Drive Our Early Vote/Election Turnout Through The Roof, Simon Rosenberg, Sept. 5,2026. People will start voting in North Carolina this week, early in person voting kicks off in thirteen days - the General Election is here everyone! Make your early vote plan today!
• AlterNet America, Saturday Wrapup: Every Time an Epstein Vote Gets Close, Congress Goes on Vacation, Ryan Rose,Sept. 5, 2026. Trump is skipping Ground Zero because he can't give a speech, even GOPers want Hegseth removed, the House recessing early stalls sexual misconduct reform, and CBS smeared a Muslim candidate using 9/11.
• The Daily with Sarah Jones via PoliticusUSA, News and Comment: Trump Stiffs Republicans And May Have Handed Congress To Democrats, Jason Easley and Sarah Jones, right, Sept. 4, 2026. Trump announced on Friday that the $400 million that his super PAC collected is “his” money, which means that he is unlikely to spend it to help Republicans in the midterms.

U.S. Media, Education, Sports, Religion

Gloria Steinem speaks at the Women's March in Washington, on January 21, 2017 (Shannon Stapleton photo for Reuters).

• New York Times, How Gloria Steinem and Ms. Magazine Transformed the Publishing Industry, Katie Robertson, Sept. 4, 2026 (print ed.). The feminist icon insisted that women were not a niche audience — and proved it in 1971 with the start of an influential publication owned and operated by them.
• New York Times, Maria Bartiromo’s Downfall at an Increasingly Cautious Fox News, Jim Rutenberg, Erik Wemple and Benjamin Mullin, Sept. 5, 2026. The network this week took Maria Bartiromo off the air, pulling one of the last hosts whose coverage of Dominion Voting Systems drew an expensive defamation lawsuit.

More On Middle East Wars

• Emptywheel, Analysis and Opinion: Is Iran Flagging or Waiting to Pounce? Emptywheel (Marcy Wheeler, right), Sept. 5, 2026. U.S. government investigators have taken the extraordinary step of subjecting roughly 50 members of the U.S. military’s Joint Staff to polygraph tests over leaks to journalists, including about how the Iran war has created a shortage of crucial munitions, according to officials briefed on the move.
• New York Times, What the War in Iran Has Cost One Gold Star Family, Katie Rogers, Sept. 5, 2026. First Lt. Tyler James Feehan, who was 25, had been deployed to an air base in Jordan when enemy missiles and drones lit up the sky. He is among the 18 Americans who have died since the war began. Stephen and Shari Feehan have stayed in close touch with their son’s fiancée, Claire Fletcher, whom he was supposed to marry right after returning from his deployment to Jordan (New York Times photo by Matteo de Mayda).

Russia-Ukraine-Europe War

• New York Times, Putin Denies a Draft Is Coming, but Some Russian Men Are Taking No Chances, Ivan Nechepurenko, Sept. 5, 2026. As the fear of a possible mobilization becomes a fixture of daily life across Russia, many men are deciding whether to flee, hide or sit tight.
• New York Times, Putin Orders Pause in Kyiv Strikes Ahead of Visit by U.S. Envoys, Ivan Nechepurenko, Sept. 5, 2026. Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, arrived in Moscow to meet with the Russian leader. They plan to visit Kyiv next, in an effort to revive peace talks.