This one is important to me for obvious reasons. Reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico walked back into the White House on Thursday, badges restored, after a federal judge temporarily lifted President Donald Trump’s ban on the three outlets. But it didn’t go smoothly. Secret Service officers turned journalists away that morning despite U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly’s order, and the outlets filed for an emergency hearing over non-compliance.

That hearing got called off. The White House director of operations told the court press passes and confiscated badges had been restored by 9:45 a.m., and NBC News captured the reporters regaining entry. The restraining order runs at least 14 days.

Trump announced the ban last Friday, citing “fiction or lies” about his administration. The Justice Department later reframed it as a national security matter, pointing to stories on missile stockpiles, the White House ballroom construction and the Republican midterm convention. Kelly (a Trump appointee) wasn’t buying it, saying the outlets were likely to win on due process grounds and that the record lacked factual support for the national security claim.

The industry closed ranks fast. More than 50 media organizations, including Fox News, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, filed an amicus brief supporting the suit. Fox News, NBC, CBS and ABC also pulled out of pool coverage in solidarity, though BBC reported none had confirmed whether they’d resumed White House broadcast coverage as of publication.

The preliminary injunction briefing is due Sept. 28, with the government’s response the following week. No hearing date has been set, so we’ll see what happens.

The Senate came one vote short Thursday, rejecting a House-passed war powers resolution 49-50 that would have directed President Trump to pull U.S. forces out of hostilities against Iran without explicit authorization from Congress. Four Republicans crossed over: Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul. Tillis was the new name on that list, and he said the administration’s briefings hadn’t explained what the strategic objective actually is.

The math got there the hard way. Democrat John Fetterman voted no. Angela Alsobrooks missed the vote entirely over what her office called an urgent family matter. And Bill Cassidy, whose vote pushed a similar resolution over the line back in June, went the other way this time, according to ABC News.

Not that June’s win changed anything. The White House ignored that resolution outright, arguing the War Powers Act is unconstitutional. But the midterms are six weeks out. Four Republican defections in September is not a wave, but it’s more than there were in June, and the next vote comes with a shorter fuse for everyone on the ballot.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate jumped to 7.45% Thursday. For those keeping track, that’s up 19 basis points from 7.26% a day earlier. Freddie Mac’s weekly average, out the same morning, crossed 7% for the first time since January 2025. If you’ve been waiting out the market, the market just stopped waiting for you.

The culprit is the bond market. The 10-year Treasury yield, which mortgage rates loosely track, surged past 5.22%—its highest since June 2007. The 30-year hit 5.501%, a level nobody’s seen in two decades. And yeah, it’s because of the Federal Reserve hike.

Rewind seven months and this looked like a different country. Rates bottomed at 5.99% in late February. Now the housing market is seizing up: existing home sales hit a 2026 low in August, reports The Guardian. Sellers aren’t moving because they’re locked into cheap loans. Buyers aren’t moving because they can’t afford the new ones.