This week’s guide to government and politics in under 10 minutes

Heads up, this editor will be off for Labor Day. We’ll be back in your inbox the following Monday, September 14. 

I JUDGE BLOCKS USPS MAIL VOTING RULES, AGAIN

A federal judge blocked the United States Postal Service (USPS) from implementing recently released mail-ballot rules. The halt followed lawsuits from Democratic state attorneys general and voting rights groups who argue the new rules violate the Constitution’s allocation of election-administration powers to the states and Congress. They also argue that states would be unable to comply with the rules in time for the 2026 midterm elections. The new rules require states to provide the federal government with a list of registered eligible voters and redesign envelopes for mailed ballots to comply with new standards. The administration argues the rules are necessary to prevent voter fraud. The last block comes after the Supreme Court lifted an earlier halt on the policy, finding that the groups challenging it acted too soon since the administration had not yet released details on how it planned to implement President Donald Trump’s March executive order on voting by mail. 

>> Understand the new rules and what’s happened in the case so far here.

I JUDGE RULES FOR ANTHROPIC IN DISPUTE WITH PENTAGON

A federal judge ruled the Pentagon’s measures against AI company Anthropic were “illegal and baseless.” The Pentagon labeled the company as a supply chain risk earlier this year after Anthropic refused a request to remove safeguards designed to prevent its Claude model from being used for mass surveillance and autonomous armed drones. That designation put Anthropic’s contracts with government agencies and major businesses at risk, and the company sued, alleging an “unlawful campaign of retaliation.” The judge in the case found that neither the Constitution nor the federal laws the government cited to justify the supply chain risk designation allowed the government to “impose sweeping penalties based principally on Anthropic’s critique of the Administration’s views.” The government is expected to appeal. 

>> More about the dispute between the Pentagon and Anthropic here.

 I TRUMP ADMIN TO ALLOW FARMERS, RANCHERS TO PROCESS OWN MEAT PRODUCTS

On Friday, the Trump administration announced plans to allow U.S. farmers and ranchers to process their own food products. The administration says the move will allow ranchers to bypass what President Trump described as a "monopoly" of large meat processors. The decision also follows backlash from U.S. ranchers after the decision to import 300,000 metric tons of tariff-free foreign ground beef over a 90-day period. The decision to lift tariffs on ground beef imports is meant to lower meat prices in U.S. grocery stores, but it would also hurt domestic cattle producers' bottom lines. It also follows a USDA recall notice finding that Argentinian beef distributed to Florida and Texas had not been properly inspected. The meat was sold in May but has sell-by or freeze-by dates between September 15 and September 20, 2026. 

>> Find out the reasons why beef prices keep going up here.

I THOUSANDS OF DEATHS, INJURIES IN NEPAL FLOODING

Thousands of people are dead or missing following a massive flood in Nepal and Tibet last week. Reports indicate that the flood began when a massive chunk of ice snapped off a glacier and fell into the valley below. Scientists say the region's glaciers are increasingly unstable because of human-caused climate change. They argue that as average temperatures rise, glaciers melt and lose structural stability. When those glaciers break, they can release a torrent of water previously held back by the glacier. The flooding was even more severe because it happened during the heavy rains of monsoon season. 

>> Dig deeper into the ways climate change can cause extreme weather here.

I KEY 9/11 CONFESSION THROWN OUT BY JUDGE

A military judge ruled that a confession from Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the man accused of plotting the September 11 attacks, cannot be used against him at trial. The judge found that the confession was not given voluntarily, disqualifying it as evidence. Prosecutors have described the confession as the government’s most crucial piece of evidence in the long-running death penalty case. Mohammed was captured by U.S. forces in 2003 and interrogated by the CIA in secret overseas prisons until his transfer to Guantánamo Bay in 2006. Prosecutors had excluded statements made to the CIA in the case, but the trial judge, Lt. Col. Michael Schrama, concluded that interrogations in 2007 at Guantánamo were also inadmissible, citing “unbroken continuation of the CIA’s psychological conditioning and severe coercion.” 

One army unit asked the question, and the results might surprise you. 

Stay ahead of the stories driving national conversations