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Tuesday brings a striking mix of reversals and firsts. Washington is confronting higher borrowing costs just months after markets expected cuts, a once-quiet military competition is moving openly into orbit, and one of football’s biggest stars is back after major knee surgery. Elsewhere, Ukraine offers a possible break in attacks, Nvidia leads another AI selloff, and television crowns its newest winners.

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The Supreme Court refused Monday to let the administration impose new Postal Service rules on mail ballots before the midterms, leaving states to send ballots under existing processes; mail accounts for nearly a third of votes cast. Alito and Thomas dissented, with Alito arguing the Postal Service "has broad authority to regulate the mail."

Justice Kavanaugh joined the majority but signaled the fight isn't over, writing there is "at least a fair prospect" the rule is within USPS authority, while applying it in 2026 "would be arbitrary and capricious." The dissenters called the challenge a "Hail Mary pass."

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to hike Wednesday, its first increase since 2023, from a benchmark of about 3.6%. As recently as March, the Fed forecast a cut this year; the Iran war's oil spike changed that, and Chair Kevin Warsh's Jackson Hole warning that inflation isn't in check sealed expectations. MIT's Kristin Forbes: "The risks are much more on more persistent inflation than it falling quickly."

Markets went in soft: the S&P 500 slipped 0.5% Monday and the Nasdaq 0.6% after AI stocks sank, Dow futures were off 0.7% early Tuesday, and SoftBank clawed back 7.5% in Tokyo after Monday's rout.

Ukraine will halt its strikes inside Russia if the Kremlin spares critical infrastructure, Zelenskyy said, a day after Trump posted that both sides had agreed "not to hit" energy targets and blamed the diesel spike "mostly" on the Russia-Ukraine war. Russia has not commented, and the refinery campaign is one of the few levers Kyiv controls outright.

Overnight, NATO jets shot down a drone over Lithuania for the first time, after it crossed from Belarus near Kaunas and phone alerts told Vilnius residents to "find a safe place." Italian pilots on the alliance's air-defense mission fired the shot.

Sabotage is suspected on Dutch railways after ProRail found materials "deliberately placed on the tracks" at several locations, stranding thousands of commuters around Zwolle, Deventer and Amersfoort on budget day.

Brazil's Supreme Court meets today on whether to investigate one of its own justices for corruption, in a crisis rooted in the collapse of Banco Master, a bank holding up to $16 billion.

Thirty people remain missing off Vanuatu four days after the ferry MV Matui sank with 53 aboard, on a vessel approved for 30 passengers that reportedly sailed without the maritime authority's knowledge.

Mitch McConnell, 84, cast his first vote in three months Monday, saying the "lingering effects of childhood polio" have slowed his recovery from a June fall.

Abbott will pay $385 million to settle federal and state claims over the Sturgis, Michigan plant whose 2022 shutdown triggered the national baby-formula shortage, without admitting fault.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan want to seize $61 million in cryptocurrency they call proceeds from black-market Iranian oil sales, part of a network that allegedly laundered $1.5 billion for Iran's military.

Costco nearly doubled the price of Kirkland synthetic motor oil to about $58 a two-pack and capped purchases at two a week, as more than 40% of US base-oil imports come from the Middle East.

Nvidia sank 3.4% and SpaceX 2% as the AI trade wobbled, while the software names AI was supposed to eat bounced hard: Autodesk up 7.8%, Intuit 5.5%, Adobe 5.3%.

NextEra and Dominion sweetened their merger pitch to Virginia with a Richmond co-headquarters, 600 jobs and a $10 monthly bill credit stretched to four years, paid for by ending credits to data centers.

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The Air Force has confirmed for the first time that the US has a weapon deployed in orbit, Secretary Troy Meink told a conference Monday, without saying what it can do.

The Gates Foundation is committing $1 billion over two years to AI tools for poorer countries, from local-language models to guidance for small farmers, just as tech leaders debate slowing AI down.

Reading for pleasure at any age sharpens cognition, builds empathy and lowers dementia risk, a new Cambridge psychiatry review finds — and, says Prof. Barbara Sahakian, "it's never too late to start."

Patrick Mahomes dove for a 15-yard touchdown on his 10th snap back from knee surgery, and Kenneth Walker III ran for 173 yards in the Chiefs' 31-10 rout of Denver.

Aaron Judge's first homer since May was a three-run shot that helped the Yankees clinch a record 61st postseason berth with an 8-3 win in Minnesota.

The Dodgers clinched a 14th straight playoff trip, tying Atlanta's record, behind seven shutout innings from Tarik Skubal in Cincinnati, with a magic number of three for the NL West.

Rookie Tristan Peters fouled off 12 pitches in an 18-pitch walk that broke open a six-run inning as the White Sox beat Cleveland 7-3 to lead the AL Central by 1.5 games.

Apple TV's "Widow's Bay" went six-for-six at the Emmys to finish with 14 wins, a comedy record, lifting Apple to the top of the overall tally for the first time with 28.

Stephen Colbert's canceled "Late Show" won outstanding variety series, and he used his speech to pitch his staff to the room: "Hire them; they will make your show better."

Colin Kaepernick's new memoir, "The Perilous Fight," lands 10 years after he first knelt, and he says the league's message was "we're going to try" to take your career from you.

What it is: Abbott has agreed to pay nearly $385 million to settle federal and state claims that it knowingly made infant formula in unsafe conditions at its Sturgis, Michigan, plant — the nation's largest — before the February 2022 shutdown that triggered a national formula shortage. Abbott admits no fault.

The detail: Investigators found roof leaks and faulty equipment that raised the risk of contamination, and the Justice Department alleges Abbott fostered "a culture of concealment that systematically failed to identify, document, investigate, and prevent potential contamination" between 2018 and 2022, at Sturgis and a second plant in Casa Grande, Arizona.

The case began in October 2022 as a whistleblower suit by three Abbott employees, who will share about $69 million of the payout. Roughly $349 million goes to the federal government and $36 million to states, whose Medicaid and WIC programs bought the formula.

Why it matters: Taxpayers fund more than half of all infant formula sold in the US through WIC, so a contaminated can is a public-health problem and a public-money problem at once. The 2022 outbreak involved four confirmed Cronobacter sakazakii infections and two infant deaths, and inspectors found five positive environmental samples at the plant; Abbott maintains no distributed, unopened formula ever tested positive.

What to watch: Whether the settlement changes how the FDA and USDA police a market this concentrated — the Sturgis closure alone emptied shelves nationwide for months. Abbott says "nothing matters more than the safety and quality" of its products; Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. put it differently: "No company should be gambling on the health and safety of our nation's infants."

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Knicks star Jalen Brunson opened the Emmys singing "I Love TV Screens," a Joan Jett parody, in a pre-taped bit with host Mariska Hargitay.

Pete Alonso returned to Citi Field to four standing ovations and a tribute video, went hitless, and remains stuck on 299 career home runs while eliminating his old team.

A $5,000 relocation check lured a Portland single mother to Muncie, Indiana, where her mortgage, insurance, and taxes together cost less than her old $1,290 rent.

Congress renames the Department of Foreign Affairs the Department of State (1789) · William Howard Taft, the only president to later serve as chief justice, is born in Cincinnati (1857) · "The Lone Ranger" debuts on television (1949) · Four girls are killed in the KKK bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church (1963) · Muhammad Ali beats Leon Spinks to win the heavyweight title a third time (1978) · Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy (2008)

"They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows." — Martin Luther King Jr., eulogizing the Birmingham victims, September 18, 1963

That's today's Five Minute Daily — the biggest developments, without the noise. Share this edition with someone who wants a clearer start to the day, and subscribe to keep the five-minute briefing coming.

—The Five Minute Daily Team