The State Department says to exercise ‘heightened vigilance’
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| Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor |
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| Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor |
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Good morning. It’s Thursday. Here are today’s top stories. |
- As record-breaking wildfires are scorching swaths of the Pacific Northwest, more than 21,000 firefighters are toiling to contain the blazes. Epoch Times reporter TJ Muscaro joined a team of over 250 working on the front lines in Oregon. This is what he saw.
- Federal immigration authorities arrested nearly 51,000 illegal immigrants throughout the United States in August, a record for a single month.
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The U.S. government has sided with OpenAI in a legal case brought by The New York Times over OpenAI training artificial intelligence models on paywalled New York Times articles.
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The Chinese communist regime revised its National Defense Mobilization Law, expanding its power to seize assets in the private and tech sectors and conscript citizens.
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🍵 Health: Your diet may be missing these anti-inflammatory carbs.
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The State Department is telling American citizens worldwide, especially in the Middle East, to exercise “heightened vigilance” and brace for potential flight cancellations and travel disruptions.
The travel advisory update was issued as the United States resumes strikes on Iran after a month-long lull in military action. |
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Ways to keep yourself informed are abundant but how much do you trust them?
Besides the longstanding bias in the media landscape, the surge of AI has further blurred the line between creativity and fabrication. What’s real, what’s artificial? What’s insightful, what’s merely ostensible? The world demands authenticity and integrity more than ever.
We heard that call.
Guided by our founding principles of truth and tradition, The Epoch Times remains steadfast in our pursuit in traditional journalism. Every single report you read is written by a human, striving always for accuracy and clarity.
While consuming news and analysis, we invite you to scroll beyond the headlines and explore our stories on life, arts, culture, and wisdom. Our feature coverage—cherished by many—offers a rare sanctuary in today’s tumultuous world: America’s Oldest Retreat for Healing; Isaac Newton’s Lost Papers; Lewis and Tolkien on War and Hope in Hard Times... Each is a delightful read—uplifting your spirit beyond the daily hustle and bustle.
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A fire crew works to contain the Paradise Fire and keep it from spreading across Mill Creek and Tiger Creek, inside the Umatilla National Forest in northeast Oregon on Aug. 26, 2026. (T.J. Muscaro/The Epoch Times) |
On a smoky hillside leading down a creek at the edge of Oregon’s Umatilla National Forest, hundreds of firefighters from across the United States made their stand on Aug. 26 against an almost entirely uncontained wildland fire spanning thousands of acres.
“We got a lot of resources doing a lot of hard work, and we turned the corner on the Paradise fire where we’re at now,” Operations Section Chief Brett Pargman told The Epoch Times. That corner would go on to mark this fire’s northwestern point, with the Mill Creek running parallel to the north and Forest Service Road 65, also known as Tiger Canyon Road, along the west.
By Aug. 30, the line was secure enough to declare their corner of the fire contained. But it stands as just one scene in this fire season’s ongoing serial drama that has already smashed all the records and stretched international resources to their limit. According to Pargman, about 250 personnel had a hand in this single containment corner of the entire campaign.
They used the creek as their initial containment line and then executed a tactical firing operation that brought fire partially down a steep hillside, eliminating any standing fuel and digging out a line down the road and away from the creek.
What looked like a small hiking trail was cut into the hillside leading down to Tiger Canyon Road, marking the intended physical border of fire activity, with a significant portion of it charred from fighting fire with fire. “By doing that on our terms,” Pargman said, “we are staying ahead of the fire before it continues to back here.”
To “back” or “back down” refers to when a fire progresses downhill. The creek was flanked by small mountains on both sides. Since heat rises, a downhill fire is slower and lower intensity, but it could still creep its way across the river and then rush back uphill. (More) |
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U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at a forum of The Americas Counter Cartel Coalition in Panama City on Aug. 12, 2026. (Matias Delacroix/AP Photo) |
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The Pentagon implemented mandatory testosterone-deficiency screening for male active-duty and reserve service members aged 30 and older, along with separate hormone-related screenings for female service members.
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President Donald Trump signed legislation to fund the government until the midterm elections wrap up in November.
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The House of Representatives rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would fix the number of U.S. Supreme Court justices at nine. Only one Democrat supported the proposed amendment.
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The U.S. Mint has started selling a $1 coin bearing President Donald Trump’s image to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has placed a one-year moratorium on classroom use of generative artificial intelligence tools for pre-K–8 grades, and all public high school students will be required to complete AI awareness refresher courses twice a year.
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- At least three people, including a suspect, have died in a mass shooting in Minneapolis, police said.
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The fifth day of deliberations in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial ended with no verdict on Sept. 2 as jurors reiterated they remained at an impasse. Judge William Sullivan encouraged the deadlocked jury to dive deeper into opposing views and ordered discussions to resume on Thursday.
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The use of commercially available cannabis edibles impairs people’s driving ability, even after several hours of consumption, a study has found.
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The USS Abraham Lincoln arrives at the port in Laem Chabang, Thailand, on Sept. 2, 2026. (Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo) |
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The USS Abraham Lincoln arrived in Thailand on Sept. 2 after 286 days at sea. The American aircraft carrier pulled into Laem Chabang, about 15 miles north of the tourist hotspot of Pattaya, giving the crew their first chance to stand on dry land since November 2025. Roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines are aboard the vast vessel, which has been involved in the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and combat operations during the war with Iran.
- The United States urged its international partners to stop doing business as usual with Nicaragua, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced plans to address human rights violations after the country’s Marxist-Leninist leaders banned open elections.
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Joshua Wong, once a prominent figure in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movements, now faces an additional prison term after his second conviction under a Beijing-imposed national security law.
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Germany has pinned the blame on Russia for last month’s attempted drone attack on Leipzig/Halle Airport.
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Chevron announced that its Venezuelan joint ventures plan to invest more than $7 billion over the next five years, part of an expansion expected to more than double the company’s production in the country.
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- America vs. Communism—by Bradley A. Thayer (Read)
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How America Might Be Losing Its Undersea Advantage—by Tamuz Itai (Read)
- Why Erudition Is in Freefall—by Jeffrey A. Tucker (Read)
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The Torch Jeffrey Tucker Is Carrying—by Mollie Engelhart (Read)
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Skeptical about cabbage? Kelli Foster says she has the recipe to turn you into a believer.
Even if you are already a cabbage-lover, she promises this southern-style fried magic will forever change the way you think about it. All you have to do is let the smoky bacon, cooked onion, and paprika do their thing. |
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“All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find.” |
— Anne Brontë, "Agnes Grey" |
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