September 27, 2026 · Seven stories, illustrated
01The rollsWashington · Voting
The Supreme Court lets states resume checking voter rolls against Trump's expanded citizenship database.
On Friday, Sept. 25, the Court paused a June ruling by Judge Sparkle Sooknanan that had blocked the rebuilt SAVE system, which added Social Security data and lets states submit whole voter rolls in bulk. The stay holds while the case is appealed.
Keep scrolling. You set the pace.
Federal law bars systematic purges within 90 days of a federal election. Nov. 3 was less than 40 days away when the order landed.
- more than 18 millionregistrations Texas ran through SAVE. Each cell of this sheet is one registration; it draws 18 million.
- 2,724flagged as possible noncitizens: the gold marks.
- 117of them referred for prosecution: the rings.
- Threepeople charged: the red marks.
Marks are exact in number. Their positions on the sheet are illustrative, not where any flagged voter lives or appears on a roll.
The purge window, drawn to scale
The National Voter Registration Act bars systematic purges within 90 days of a federal election. Using SAVE is voluntary; 27 states do.
The order
The challengers' claims likely lack merit.
Unsigned. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented in 12 pages, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan; the order lists no formal vote count.
Read the reporting
02The lapseWashington · Congress
Trump cancels $810 million in spending Congress approved, five days before the money expires.
On Friday, Sept. 25, budget director Russell Vought sent Speaker Mike Johnson a “pocket rescission.” Congress's 45-day review window runs past the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year, so the money lapses with no vote.
The Government Accountability Office has concluded the maneuver is illegal. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins called it unlawful and said she got no warning.
- 45 daysLawmakers get 45 days to vote on a rescission request. Each tile is one of those days.
- five daysThe request was filed Friday, Sept. 25, with five days left before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
- No voteThe rest of the window falls after the fiscal year ends. The money lapses with no vote.
The five days left before Sept. 30Review days after the money lapses
$810 millionFour cuts account for $718 million of the total. The source reporting does not itemize the other $92 million.
- $567 millionHHS aid for refugees, asylees and unaccompanied minors
- $70 millionInternational education grants and fellowships, labeled 'Woke International Education' by the White House
- $56 millionHUD programs
- $25 millionEducation Department grants for migrant students
- $92 millionNot itemized in the source reporting
One bar, drawn to scale from $0 to $810 million.
Precedent
- 1977Jimmy Carter, the last president to do it before Trump
- A year earlierTrump used the same move to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid
- Friday, Sept. 25$810 million, with five days left
“theft from the American people.”
Sen. Patty Murray, Appropriations vice chair
Read the reporting
03The lowUnited States · Polling
Trump's approval falls to a Reuters/Ipsos low of 32% as Republican approval drops 9 points in a week.
The Reuters/Ipsos figure is down 3 points in a week; Quinnipiac has him at 33%. Among Republicans, approval fell from 82% to 73% in one week, five weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms.
- 100candles: each is 1% of Republicans in the Reuters/Ipsos poll.
- 82%approved a week earlier: the burning and the smoking candles together.
- 73%approve now. The 9 smoking candles are the net drop of 9 points in one week; a poll cannot say which respondents changed their minds.
- 73burning: approve in this week's poll
- 9 smoking: the points lost since the week before
- unlit: the rest of the 100, not approving in either week
The Republican slide
Reuters/Ipsos, share of Republicans approving. Bars on a 0–100% scale, in order, not to time scale.
All voters
Job approval. Shared 0–100% scale.
Republicans, on his handling of…
Reuters/Ipsos. Among all voters, Quinnipiac has 32% approving of his handling of the economy, his lowest on that issue in its polling.
Into the House races
Which party should control the House · Quinnipiac
49% Democrats38% Republicans
My congressional vote is mostly… · NPR/PBS News/Marist
45% against Trump24% for him
Bars start at each end on a shared 0–100% scale; the middle is undecided or other answers.
Read the reporting
04The rejectionNew York · Strait of Hormuz
Trump rejects Iran's offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days in exchange for ending the U.S. blockade.
Iran's foreign minister passed the plan through Qatari mediators during about three hours of indirect talks at the UN. Trump did not say which terms were unacceptable; U.S. officials say they feel no rush because U.S. forces control the strait.
The Wall Street Journal reports Trump told staff a renewed bombing campaign is probable after the November elections. Asked directly, he did not answer.
U.S. officials say they feel no rush because U.S. forces control the strait, which normally carries about a fifth of the world's oil and gas. The counts below measure different things: one night by Trump's account, and daily transits by Kpler's.
29ships left the strait the night before, Trump saidOne night · his count
about18transits a day, Kpler's 10-day averagePer day · Kpler
9transits on some days, per KplerSome days · Kpler
Each light is one ship (Trump's figure) or one transit (Kpler's). Positions are illustrative, not tracked, and the lights hold their places so every count stays whole.
The offer, as passed through Qatari mediators
Iran would
- Reopen the strait within seven days of U.S. acceptance
- Resume nuclear talks
Qatari mediatorsabout three hours of indirect talks with envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner at the UN in New York
The U.S. would
- Lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports
- Waive oil sanctions
- Observe a regional ceasefire including Lebanon
Rejected
Trump did not say which terms were unacceptable.
$12 billionin frozen Iranian assets the U.S. would also release, out of the $24 billion Iran estimates is frozen abroad
Each cell: $1 billionSingle source: The New Yorker, alone among outlets
“I rejected their deal. They want to make a deal where they open the strait immediately because they're losing so badly.”
“…peace cannot be built through threats of annihilation.”
Still open. Neither side has named a next round of talks.
Read the reporting
05The exodusAtlanta · Public health
The CDC has lost close to 30% of its workforce in a year, with entire teams effectively shut down, the New York Times reports.
Federal data charted by Michigan State University researchers show the agency fell from 12,763 employees in January 2025 to 9,270 in April 2026. Staff describe the agency as “zombified.”
12,763 January 2025
9,270 April 2026
- 12,763windows: one for each CDC employee in January 2025.
- 9,270lit: the workforce in April 2026, per federal data charted by Michigan State University researchers.
- close to30%of the workforce lost over the past year, the Times reports. Entire teams have been effectively shut down, not just thinned.
Each window is one employee in January 2025; the lit share is drawn to scale. Dark-window positions are illustrative: the Times does not name which teams closed or which posts sit empty. The Times's figure covers the past year; the federal data run from January 2025 to April 2026.
Which teams the 2025 layoffs emptied or halted
Division of Violence Prevention
about three-quarters of its staff lost
Studies gun deaths and injuries · April 2025 layoffs · per its retired director, James Mercy
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention
about a third of its staff lost
April 2025 layoffs
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
about 90% of staff: the cut HHS moved to make, later revoked
HHS moved to cut about 90% of staff, then revoked the remaining layoff notices in January 2026
Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System
Suspended
The main federal survey on maternal health
Shares are approximate, as reported. NIOSH's bar is outlined because the cut was proposed and then revoked.
projects Congress funded for fiscal 2026 have no staff to run them, ABC News reports. One is the $246 million Office on Smoking and Health.
The Senate confirmed Erica Schwartz on Aug. 5, 2026, the first permanent CDC head after the agency went about a year without a permanent director.
Read the reporting
06The seatWashington · Knoxville
The White House left CNN off Air Force One two days after a judge restored its pass.
Judge Timothy Kelly's 14-day order restored hard passes but did not cover pool duties or Air Force One. For Trump's Sept. 26 trip to a college football game in Knoxville, CNN's seat went to Real America's Voice, which is not a pool network.
With no pool network aboard, a pool report confirmed there was no TV pool, so there is no widely available independent video of the trip.
- WashingtonWhite House guidance gave CNN's Air Force One seat to Real America's Voice, which is not a pool network.
- No TV pool aboardWith no pool network aboard, a pool report that day confirmed there was no TV pool.
- KnoxvilleSept. 26: a college football game. There is no widely available independent video.
Natural Earth 1:110m land, north up. The arc is drawn as a great circle between the two cities, not the flown track.
What Judge Timothy Kelly's 14-day order covered
- White House hard passesRestored
- Pool dutiesNot covered
- Air Force OneNot covered
Trump announced a ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico; their reporters were turned away the next day.
- Pool suspended
The three outlets sued Trump; the five TV pool networks suspended pool coverage.
Trump launched a 24/7 White House streaming feed.
In an overnight ruling, Kelly, a Trump appointee, ordered the three outlets' hard passes restored for 14 days.
- Pool resumed
The TV pool resumed at noon, with CNN on duty for Trump and Xi Jinping at the National Archives. That night, White House guidance gave CNN's Air Force One seat to Real America's Voice, which is not a pool network.
- No TV pool
Trump flew to a college football game in Knoxville with no pool network aboard.
FAKE NEWS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!!
Trump on Truth Social, the morning of the trip
Read the reporting
07The outbreakPennsylvania · Measles
Pennsylvania's measles outbreak reaches 890 cases and four deaths.
The state reported 55 new cases between Sept. 23 and Sept. 25. The year's total spans 39 counties, with 173 hospitalizations. Lancaster County alone has 359 of the cases, the most of any county.
201795.5% · 955 of 1,000 bricks
2025-2687.6% · 876 of 1,000 bricks
- 95.5%of Lancaster County kindergartners had the MMR vaccine in 2017: 955 of 1,000 bricks.
- 87.6%in 2025-26: 876 bricks. The light comes through where bricks are missing.
- 92.4%is the national kindergarten rate. Lancaster County now sits below it.
Each brick is 0.1% of Lancaster County kindergartners. Gap positions are illustrative. Coverage is for kindergartners, not all residents.
Kindergarten MMR coverage · 0–100% scale
- Lancaster County, 201795.5%
- United States92.4%
- Lancaster County, 2025-2687.6%
Every confirmed case this year · one dot each
- 359 in Lancaster County, the most of any county
- The other cases, in the rest of the 39 counties with cases
- 890
- confirmed cases this year, across 39 counties
- 55
- new cases reported between Wednesday, Sept. 23, and Friday, Sept. 25
- 173
- hospitalizations
- 31%
- of cases are in people under 18; fewer than 1% are in vaccinated people
Four deaths
The state counts four deaths as measles-associated, its first in about 35 years. This outbreak, which began in late April, has four deaths in 890 cases. Pennsylvania's health department says measles usually kills one to three of every 1,000 patients.
Disputed in Washington.Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the deaths “may even have been altogether fabricated”; the Lancaster County coroner issued a formal public rebuttal.
The state has given more than 5,300 MMR doses at 165 pop-up clinics since the outbreak began.