Top 5 US news stories

U.S. Vaccine Policy Splinters as States Defy Federal Guidelines

Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court for Swift Review of Tariff Ruling

Amid Tariff Standoff, U.S. Soybean Farmers Face Harvest With No Orders From China

Chinese Hack May Have Compromised Data of Nearly Every American, Officials Warn

Defending Champion Eagles to Host Rival Cowboys as NFL Season Kicks Off Tonight

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1. U.S. Vaccine Policy Splinters as States Defy Federal Guidelines

Vaccine policy has begun to fracture along state and political lines in the United States, with some states breaking away from guidelines set by the Trump administration and others going even further to loosen vaccine requirements. The contrast was on stark display Wednesday as Washington, Oregon and California announced a coalition to make shot recommendations to counter what they called the Trump administration’s “destruction” of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hours later, Florida announced it would become the first in the nation to end all school vaccine mandates. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s changes to U.S. vaccine policy have prompted some states to break from the federal government and chart their own approaches to vaccination, moves that public health experts fear could lead to unprecedented confusion among doctors and patients. Kennedy is set to appear before senators at a hearing at 10 a.m. Thursday, where he is expected to face questions about vaccines.

The Washington Post

2. Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court for Swift Review of Tariff Ruling

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court late Wednesday to quickly hear its appeal of a ruling that rejected the president’s global tariffs, saying the lower court loss already was hurting the White House in ongoing trade negotiations. U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer urged the justices to grant review and expedite the case “to the maximum extent feasible, given the enormous importance of quickly confirming the full legal standing of the president’s tariffs.” The petition comes days after a federal appeals court ruled that Trump had exceeded his authority by claiming emergency authority to rewrite U.S. trade policy. That court allowed Trump’s tariffs to remain in place through mid-October to give the government a few weeks to ask the high court to hear the case. Sauer’s submissions to the Supreme Court included a declaration from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that said the appellate ruling “is already adversely affecting ongoing negotiations. World leaders are questioning the president’s authority to impose tariffs, walking away from or delaying negotiations, and/or imposing a different calculus on their negotiating positions.”

WSJ

3. Amid Tariff Standoff, U.S. Soybean Farmers Face Harvest With No Orders From China

China has rare earth metals. The United States and Brazil have soybeans. For all the chokeholds China maintains on global supply chains, it is overwhelmingly dependent on soybeans from other parts of the world. China imports three-fifths of all the soybeans traded on international markets. Now with China and the United States locked in a tense standoff over tariffs, soybeans have emerged as a central dispute between the trading partners. China has been boycotting purchases of U.S. soybeans since late May to show displeasure with President Trump’s imposition of tariffs on imports from China. The pain is being felt in Midwest states, especially Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Indiana. For the first time in many years, American farmers are preparing to harvest their crop this fall with no purchase orders from China. “The further into the autumn we get without reaching an agreement with China on soybeans, the worse the impacts will be on U.S. soybean farmers,” the American Soybean Association warned in a letter to Mr. Trump on Aug. 19. But China also faces risks in the standoff. Brazil, which will harvest its crop early next year, is the only other country with enough soybeans to meet Chinese demand and enough trains and port capacity to move those soybeans to China. “I think they could probably go without American soybeans this autumn, but if Brazil has some drought or flood that affects their crops next year, it would put China in a difficult position,” said Darin Friedrichs, the managing director of Sitonia Consulting, a research firm specializing in Chinese agriculture.

NYT

4. Chinese Hack May Have Compromised Data of Nearly Every American, Officials Warn

China has hacked into American power grids and companies for decades, stealing sensitive files and intellectual property such as chip designs as it seeks to gain an edge over the United States. But a sweeping cyberattack by a group known as Salt Typhoon is China’s most ambitious yet, experts and officials have concluded after a year of investigating it. It targeted more than 80 countries and may have stolen information from nearly every American, officials said. They see it as evidence that China’s capabilities rival those of the United States and its allies. The Salt Typhoon attack was a yearslong, coordinated assault that infiltrated major telecommunications companies and others, investigators said in a highly unusual joint statement last week. The range of the attack was far greater than originally understood, and security officials warned that the stolen data could allow Chinese intelligence services to exploit global communication networks to track targets including politicians, spies and activists.

NYT

5. Defending Champion Eagles to Host Rival Cowboys as NFL Season Kicks Off Tonight

The very first game of the 2025 NFL regular season features the defending Super Bowl champion squaring off against an old-school divisional rival who’s still making seismic roster moves with only days to spare until kickoff — and it’s all unfolding live on NBC and Peacock. The Philadelphia Eagles will play host to the Dallas Cowboys on NBC and Peacock to begin the 2025 NFL season, reigniting a historic rivalry that immediately launches both teams right into their respective NFC East divisional races. The game will be broadcast live on Thursday, September 4, ringing in the start of the 2025 regular season with a special Thursday night lead-in presentation of Football Night in America before the Sunday Night Football crew takes over live from Philadelphia.

NBC

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Sources

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/09/04/coronavirus-vaccines-mandates-state-divisions/
2. https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-administration-seeks-swift-supreme-court-review-on-tariffs-5e71b4d9?mod=hp_lead_pos1
3. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/business/china-soybeans-trump-tariffs.html
4. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/world/asia/china-hack-salt-typhoon.html
5. https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/how-to-watch-dallas-cowboys-vs-philadelphia-eagles-on-nbc-peacock

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