The briefing for Thursday, September 10.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's board voted Wednesday to report Iran to the UN Security Council, the first such referral in 20 years, citing Tehran's failure to cooperate with an investigation into uranium traces found at undeclared sites. Western officials suspect the traces could point to a secret weapons program that ran until 2003; Iran insists its program is entirely peaceful. Twenty-three of the IAEA's 35-member board voted for the resolution, put forward by the US, UK, France and Germany, while China, Russia and Niger voted against and eight countries abstained.

The referral opens the door to possible sanctions and asset freezes, though such measures are considered unlikely since Iran's allies Russia and China hold veto power on the Security Council. Iran has denied IAEA inspectors access to nuclear sites damaged in the 12-day war with Israel and the US in June 2025, and the agency says it can no longer verify the status of Iran's stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium. According to the IAEA, that stockpile — about 441 kilograms enriched to 60% purity — could theoretically be converted into as many as 10 nuclear bombs if Iran chose to weaponize it.

Iran's deputy foreign minister condemned the resolution, arguing that US and Israeli strikes disrupted the very inspections now being used as justification against it. The referral lands amid a further escalation in the broader US-Iran war: this week the US destroyed five Iranian oil tankers, and Tehran struck back at American targets in Jordan. The diplomatic move underscores how nuclear oversight and open hostilities are now intertwined in an already volatile conflict.

Russia fired its new jet-powered Geran drones against Ukraine every day throughout August, according to BBC Verify analysis of Ukrainian Air Force data — the first time daily attacks by the upgraded drones have been recorded. Ukraine's military says jet-powered drone attacks jumped from 350 in June to 1,600 in July and 2,800 in August, with the drones outnumbering older, slower models in five nightly attacks last month.

Military technology expert Dr. Marina Miron of King's College London said the switch to jet propulsion makes the drones far harder for Ukraine to intercept, since they can cruise at more than 300 mph — well beyond the top speed of Kyiv's interceptors. Some of the turbojet engines powering the drones are reportedly sourced from China, according to Ukrainian military intelligence. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the drones were part of a September 1 attack that killed at least 12 people and injured 20 more, including railway workers hit at a depot in Kyiv.

Ukraine had earlier reported intercepting 94% of long-range drones, but the speed of the newer weapons has forced a new round in the arms race between Kyiv and Moscow. Ukraine's deputy head of military intelligence said last month that his forces need new interceptor missiles capable of matching the jet-drones' speed, highlighting how quickly the balance of the drone war can shift.

Earth experienced its hottest August on record last month, according to the European climate service Copernicus, driven by the combination of human-caused climate change and a strong El Nino. The global average temperature of 62.53°F was technically a hundredth of a degree above the previous record set in July 2023, but scientists consider it a statistical tie. The scorching August also helped make this the hottest Northern Hemisphere summer scientists have measured.

In the United States, NOAA announced that summer 2026 was hotter than the peak of the 1936 Dust Bowl, with the June-through-August average in the Lower 48 nearly four-tenths of a degree warmer than the 90-year-old record. August alone smashed US records by more than half a degree Fahrenheit. Globally, August was 1.65 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, well past the 1.5-degree threshold set by the Paris climate agreement, and ocean temperatures tied an all-time monthly record.

Scientists say the persistence of record-breaking heat, including August outpacing the typically hotter July, signals that warming is accelerating. Copernicus climate lead Samantha Burgess said the effects have moved from abstract to immediate, pointing to closed schools, overwhelmed hospitals, melting roads and buckling train lines. Researchers stressed that while El Nino contributes to the heat, the dominant driver remains the ongoing burning of fossil fuels.

A Lancaster County coroner confirmed Wednesday that measles caused the death of one of two infants at the center of Pennsylvania's outbreak, while a genetic birth defect was the cause in the second case. Six-week-old Mary Stoltzfus, born with a condition called Amish lethal microcephaly, died from a measles infection on Aug. 18. A ruptured spleen killed Ivan Miller, who was also infected with measles, though the coroner said the virus did not contribute to the spleen injury.

The deaths have drawn national scrutiny and became a flashpoint between Pennsylvania's Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, and Trump administration officials. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested last month that the deaths "may even have been altogether fabricated," echoing similar skepticism he voiced about measles deaths last year. The CDC's website has been edited multiple times and still carries a disclaimer declining to count either Pennsylvania death, prompting some public health experts to question the agency's reliability under Kennedy's leadership.

Pennsylvania's outbreak continues to grow, with more than 620 cases across 37 counties reported this year. The US eliminated domestic measles spread in 2000 through high vaccination rates, but those rates have since fallen below the 95% threshold needed to prevent outbreaks, contributing to a broader national surge in cases.

China said Thursday it hopes to reach an agreement with the US on lowering import taxes "at an early date," as negotiators work toward reciprocal tariff reductions on $30 billion worth of goods from each side. The comments come two weeks before President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are set to meet in Washington on Sept. 24 for their third face-to-face talks in the past year.

The reductions stem from a US-China Board of Trade the two leaders agreed to establish at their May meeting in Beijing, following a truce in a tariff war that had pushed duties on Chinese imports to extremely high levels. Barclays Bank noted that trade will be central to the upcoming summit but cautioned that a broad deal is unlikely, with targeted reductions more probable; the existing tariff truce expires Nov. 10.

Analysts say the economic stakes are asymmetric: the $30 billion figure represents roughly 28% of US exports to China but only about 10% of Chinese exports to the US, meaning an agreement would likely benefit the US more. Even so, economists note that both countries have already reduced their mutual trade reliance, limiting the overall significance of any deal compared to before the tariff war.

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman appeared via video at the Republican Party's midterm convention in Dallas on Wednesday, introducing his Pennsylvania Senate colleague, Republican Dave McCormick, and praising him as "a great American." Fetterman didn't name any Democrats directly but suggested his own party has drifted toward extremism, echoing a message Republicans are pushing heading into the midterms.

The appearance intensifies speculation that Fetterman could switch parties, a move that would complicate Democrats' push to retake the Senate majority, since they need to flip four GOP-held seats and would need a fifth if Fetterman departed. Fetterman has repeatedly said he won't switch due to his support for labor unions and LGBTQ rights, but he has increasingly broken with Democrats — backing several Trump nominees, opposing efforts to end the Iran war, and voting with Republicans to end last year's government shutdown.

The moment underscores Fetterman's unusual position within his caucus: even if he stays a Democrat, his willingness to buck the party would carry outsized weight if Democrats win a narrow majority requiring near-unanimous unity. The White House quickly amplified the video on social media, calling it "Based John Fetterman."