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The Iran war has cost the Pentagon $38 billion and is still adding up to $3 billion a month, as a watchdog confirms munitions shortfalls. Meanwhile, household income reaches a record $87,460, the Kennedy Center votes to close, and the Senate stalls a major crypto bill.

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The Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday the Iran war has cost the Pentagon more than $38 billion through Aug. 1 and keeps running up to $3 billion a month, a tab that also leaves inflation roughly half a point higher into early 2027.

Hours earlier, the Pentagon's inspector general confirmed Tuesday "strategic inventory shortfalls" in munitions after $22 billion in spending from February through June, contradicting President Trump's claim that stockpiles are "virtually unlimited." The White House insisted the military has "more than enough."

Median household income climbed to a record $87,460 in 2025, per Census Bureau data out Tuesday, with the poverty rate roughly flat. Solid wage gains capped the year — before this year's policy changes hit.

The figures predate the administration's cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and housing assistance, which analysts expect to reshape the 2026 numbers when they land next fall. Both sides will point back to this snapshot as the baseline for what comes next.

The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted Tuesday to shutter most of the venue hours after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled, for the second time, that the president's name cannot go up without Congress's blessing. Trump said the $257 million in repairs Congress funded will happen only if the name does.

Administrators told the board recently that the main building is unsafe and the center's finances are "within weeks" of bankruptcy, after ticket sales plummeted and prominent artists canceled, calling the institution politicized. Trump said the Justice Department will appeal Cooper's ruling.

Satellite images of Saudi Arabia's East-West Pipeline show a badly damaged pumping station that experts told BBC Verify could take more than a month to repair, threatening to push oil higher still after Riyadh blamed Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.

Police in Congo fired tear gas and warning shots to break up hundreds protesting in Kinshasa Tuesday against constitutional changes that could let President Felix Tshisekedi seek a third term, despite Ebola-driven limits on gatherings.

Italy and Spain each extended their tit-for-tat border checks by another 15 days, prolonging a migration feud that began when more than 72,000 migrants surged into Spain's Ceuta enclave from Morocco in late July.

Families of the 67 people killed in last year's Potomac midair collision stood outside the Capitol Tuesday to press Congress for aircraft-location systems on airliners before the midterms drain what urgency remains.

Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie filed privileged articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, accusing him of waging war on Iran without congressional approval, a resolution unlikely to pass but one the House must take up within two legislative days.

FBI Director Kash Patel suggested agents could be stationed at election polling sites, a comment that drew immediate pushback given federal law barring armed federal officers from polling stations.

Nike co-founder Phil Knight will donate $1.1 billion to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Oregon, funding an all-women's hospital and a broader expansion of cardiovascular care across the state.

Ford will offer its 5.0-liter V-8 across the entire 2027 F-150 lineup and cut its performance-model starting prices, with the Raptor down $4,000 to $77,800 and the Tremor about $5,300 lower at $62,400, partly by trimming standard equipment.

JPMorgan says Fed Chair Kevin Warsh must walk a fine line Wednesday, with equities set to swing sharply depending on how hawkish his press conference reads to markets.

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Anthropic's Dario Amodei and Nvidia's Jensen Huang split on AI safety at Dreamforce, where Huang called pacing versus speed "a false choice" days after Amodei's essay urged the industry to slow model development.

Antarctic krill, the shrimp-like base of the Southern Ocean food web, have turned up living around deep-sea hydrothermal vents, a surprise habitat Oregon State researchers say could help protect the species as the region warms.

Amazon Web Services conceded it cannot restore data hosted exclusively in Bahrain or in one UAE availability zone six months after drone strikes damaged the sites beyond what its services were designed to withstand.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league leaned on the Timberwolves precedent before stripping the Clippers of five first-round picks for salary-cap circumvention, calling the fallout for fans "the most difficult part."

Texas quarterback Arch Manning apologized for laughing at an AI-generated video that depicted coach Steve Sarkisian slapping ESPN reporter Holly Rowe, calling his remark "insensitive" days after the Longhorns' 24-23 comeback over Ohio State.

Lionel Messi will get his farewell after all, named to Argentina's 28-man squad for an Oct. 6 friendly against Benin that the federation is billing as the 39-year-old's "last tango."

The Washington Capitals said Alex Ovechkin was asked to appear in a United Russia campaign ad while home in Moscow this summer, noting their captain lives there every offseason and will after he retires.

Every remaining support act on Ed Sheeran's U.S. tour has quit, Finneas, Lukas Graham and Beoga among them, after Macklemore was dropped over pro-Palestinian remarks that Sheeran insists were "the promoter's decision."

A Paris court awarded Kim Kardashian exactly 1 euro, the sum she requested, for the 2016 armed robbery, with the star saying the ruling "is not about the compensation, but about accountability and recognition."

Chrissie Hynde, who detests cameras and self-mythologizing, sat for exactly one interview for the first authorized Pretenders documentary, which premiered at Toronto and is now up for sale.

What it is: The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that median U.S. household income rose 2.6% after inflation in 2025 to a record $87,460, finally topping the 2019 mark of $85,320. It is the first time since COVID hit that the typical household clearly earns more than it did before the pandemic.

The detail: Six years of work bought a 2.5% raise. Over the previous six years, from 2013 to 2019, incomes jumped 19%. Women's paychecks rose 3.2% while men's slipped slightly, narrowing the gender gap to nearly 84 cents on the dollar from under 81 a year earlier.

Inequality stayed high: the top 10% grew 1.7% to $261,300 while the poorest tenth dipped to just over $20,000, leaving the top earning a bit more than 13 times the bottom. Poverty fell to 10.2% nationally from 10.7%, or 34.5 million people down from 36 million, and health coverage held steady.

Why it matters: Affordability is the midterm issue, and this report explains the sour mood better than any poll: real gains exist, but they are thin, uneven and already being eaten. Prices have outrun average wages for five straight months since the Iran war rekindled inflation, so the 2025 snapshot may be the high-water mark rather than a trend.

What to watch: The 2026 numbers. SNAP and Medicaid were credited with keeping families out of poverty last year, and both are being scaled back under last year's GOP tax package, while enhanced Obamacare subsidies have lapsed and Medicaid work requirements arrive next year. Analysts like Sharon Parrott of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities expect those cuts to push poverty and the uninsured rate the wrong way when the next report lands.

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Nigerian authorities arrested an alleged Mexican drug kingpin at Lagos airport, with Arturo Carrera Loaiza denying methamphetamine production charges that officials say involve an international trafficking network.

Pokémon collectors are bracing for what fans are calling the "biggest day in a decade" as the 30th-anniversary trading cards drop, with resellers already circling.

Japan now has more than 100,000 residents aged 100 or older, and 88% of centenarians are women, a demographic footnote that quietly says everything about the country's future.

Tanks roll into combat for the first time at the Somme (1916) · Nazi Germany imposes the Nuremberg race laws (1935) · The RAF downs 56 German aircraft on what becomes Battle of Britain Day (1940) · U.S. Marines land at Inchon, Korea (1950) · Marilyn Monroe films the skirt scene (1954) · Khrushchev arrives in Washington as the first Soviet leader to visit the U.S. (1959)

"The Navy and Marines have never shone more brightly than this morning." — Gen. Douglas MacArthur, signal to Vice Adm. Arthur Struble from the USS Mount McKinley, Inchon, Sept. 15, 1950

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