The Headlines - A Surge of Russian Sabotage Attacks in Europe, and Musk’s Political War Chest

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

Plus, your Friday news quiz. Here’s what we’re covering:The Risk of Russian Sabotage in Europe: A Fight That Spirals Out of Control, by Michael Schwirtz and Adam Goldman‘I Wouldn’t Call It a War’: Vance Plays Down Recent Iran Strikes, by Maggie HabermanTrump Administration Begins Blitz to Find Elusive Voter Fraud Ahead of Midterms, by Nick Corasaniti and Hamed AleazizTrump to Break Ground on Arch Before Getting Approval, by Luke Broadwater and Emily BadgerElon Musk Makes His First Spending Push in Key Midterm Races, by Theodore SchleiferRescuers Search Nepal Tunnel for Survivors After Finding 2 Alive, by Anupreeta Das, Binod Ghimire, Sajal Pradhan, Mujib Mashal and Hari RajA.I. Is Everywhere in China. See For Yourself., by Agnes Chang, Vivian Wang, Jiwoong Hong, Aaron Byrd and Qilai Shen Tune in every weekday morning, and tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Will Jarvis, in for Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, September 4th, here's what we're covering. Across Europe over the past few years. A railway line linking Warsaw to southeastern Poland was damaged by a weekend explosion. Officials have been sounding the alarm about a dramatic and escalating series of sabotage attacks that they say are being carried out by Russia. It's part of a wider plot where Russia scheme to send the incendiary devices through a commercial carrier on planes that would potentially end up in the United States.

The attacks began just after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine as part of Russia's attempts to bring the war to the West more broadly. But security officials tell the times that they're now becoming more intense and more frequent. One of the drones equipped with military-grade explosives bounced off the wing of a plane on the tarmac. In just the past week, German officials announced that Russia was behind a failed drone attack

this summer on a Ukrainian cargo plane at a German airport. Polish officials said a fire at a drone factory was most likely caused by sabotage, and Denmark's intelligence service said Russia is recruiting Danes to attack defense companies. So for the moment nobody's been killed or seriously injured in these attacks, but the more frequently these things occur, the more that becomes a possibility. And this, according to, officials that I've been talking to, is a looming crisis for NATO in the West. Michael Schwartz covers global security issues for the times. These attacks have posed a real challenge for NATO because NATO wasn't created to face down this type of challenge. NATO was created during the Cold War to deter and then fight against a land invasion from the Soviet Union.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin has been very careful to pursue a campaign that seems to fall well below the threshold of a war, well short of Article 5, which is the central tenant of NATO that an attack on one is attack against all. And this has left NATO struggling to respond. They've kicked out diplomats, they've imposed sanctions, but they've realized that this is really doing little to blunt this Russian campaign. And so they are starting to experiment with some new ideas. Recently, in August, in fact, the German government authorized its spy services for the first time. since World War II to carry out what are called active measures.

So this is sabotage, cyber attacks, things like that, directed at Russia. But experts and officials are telling me that even these kinds of more aggressive measures are not going to be enough. And so for the time being, they expect these tax simply are going to continue. Now, three quick updates on the Trump administration. First, at the White House yesterday. In terms of the war in the timeline, will this war? be over by the time of the midterm elections?

Well, Caitlin, again, I don't, I wouldn't call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting. Vice President J.D. Vance tried to downplay the war in Iran, saying he doesn't currently consider it a war at all. His comments came as the U.S. and Iran have both launched air strikes over the past week, attacks that shattered a nearly month-long pause in active fighting. When you ask, when will this end, you're asking me a question, like, when will the Iranians stop shooting at ships?

I think the reality is, I don't know the answer to that question. You'd have to ask the Iranians. The vice president also said he did not have a timeline for how long the war will stretch on, suggesting that was up to Iran. Vance spoke from the White House briefing room, the first administration official to do that in weeks. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt recently stepped down from the role, and the White House has not announced anyone to replace her. Also, the Times has learned that hundreds of federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security have, been reassigned to scour the country's voter rolls for people who aren't citizens. The administration has launched the intensive operation, despite the fact that there's no evidence of widespread voter fraud. A database from a conservative think tank shows that over a

quarter century, there were only about 100 instances of non-citizens voting. But President Trump has fixated on the issue, claiming without evidence that tens of thousands of non-citizens are registered to vote. Now, the administration has pulled DHS agents away from their normal duties like investigating trafficking and terrorism. It's not clear what they will find in the voter rolls or what would be done with that information. One former immigration official called the effort a political fishing expedition meant to, quote, intimidate people from exercising their right to vote. In a statement, DHS, said that ensuring the integrity and security of American elections is one of its top priorities. And we are the only major capital. We are the only major place without a

Triumphal Arc, a beautiful triumphal arc. President Trump is about to break ground on construction of the 250-foot-tall gold-topped arch he's been talking about for months. It's moving forward even before a federal commission has approved the project and before it's been reviewed under the National Historic Preservation Act. Both of those are legally required. The project is also facing a challenge in the courts. A group of Vietnam veterans has sued to stop the plan construction, arguing that the massive

Arch would disrupt historic views from Arlington National Cemetery and that it should have been approved by Congress. It's just the latest major construction project Trump has rushed to get underway, including his demolition of the White House East Wing to build a new ballroom. Critics say they see a pattern of Trump trying to basically outrun any scrutiny by the courts by building as quickly as possible. One last political update now, Elon Musk, the world's richest person, is cracking open his war chest to try and help Republicans win in the midterm elections. According to people briefed on his plans, he could spend up to $120 million. This week, campaign finance reports showed that his super PAC has started deploying the first wave of that money

in more than a dozen races across the country, including in Texas, Michigan, and Iowa. Among other things, the group has started running Facebook and Google ads focused on voter registration and portraying Democrats as radical socialists. Musk is no stranger to throwing money at elections. He spent close to $300 million backing Republicans in 2024. But there were questions about how much he'd spend this cycle after a public spat with Republicans last year. Musk had criticized President Trump's major domestic policy bill and threatened to start his own third party. But with a flood of new money going to Republican candidates, the billionaire appears to be back in the fold.

In Nepal this morning, officials said that two people were rest of the people. from a tunnel at a hydropower facility after being trapped there more than a week by a sudden devastating flood. The flood killed more than 1,200 people and thousands more are still missing, including many who had been working on multiple energy projects in the region. Rescuers have spent days working around the clock to try and bore into tunnels and dig through a dense mix of sludge and mud trying to access the underground facilities. Some of them had been completely filled in by debris. They've also been pumping air into at least one of the tunnels in case people were still alive.

According to people briefed on the rescue operations at the tunnel today, dozens of other workers are still thought to be inside, and rescuers working at the site have been hearing some of their voices. You can find live coverage of the ongoing rescue effort at n.yatimes.com. And finally, If you were to walk down the street in Beijing right now, you would just be bombarded by AI. There are cleaning robots, just roaming around malls.

Yeah, sure. There's a camera that claims to use facial recognition to tell if you were jaywalking and identify who you were so that potentially you could be fined. Some of it is pretty gimmicky. There are trash cans that claim to be AI powered to help you sort garbage. Or humanoid robots that try to sell you coffee but really have trouble grabbing onto anything. There's just advertising for AI absolutely everywhere. Vivian Wong covers China for the Times. She's part of a team that's been looking at how the country is going all in on artificial intelligence.

The technology has sparked growing concerns about privacy, unemployment, and other hot-button issues. But Vivian says China is pushing ahead. This proliferation of AI really speaks to a few different things in China. So while in the U.S., AI companies are really focused on building the most cutting-edge models, Chinese companies and the Chinese government have really emphasized the importance of just putting AI everywhere as quickly as possible. They want it to be shaping people's lives so that they're seeing it in classrooms, in factories, in hospitals. They really want people to feel that AI is useful to their lives practically. The other thing it shows is that people in China are just generally much more

optimistic about AI than people in the U.S. One survey recently showed that about one third of Americans think that the benefits of AI outweigh the risks. But in China, that's actually a lot more actually about two-thirds of people. So there's just a lot more sense that AI is going to be exciting or at least bring something good to people's lives. Those are the headlines. If you'd like to play the Friday News Quiz, stick around. It's just after these credits.

One quick thing, if you are not a time subscriber yet, you can get a full month of free access to everything we publish when you download the Times app now. This show is made by Margaret Kedifa, Jake Lucas, Tracy Mumford, Jan Stewart, and me, Will Jarvis. original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Sam Dolnik, Miles McKinley, Alyssa Moxley, Zoe Murphy, and Chris Wood. Now, time for the quiz.

Every week we ask you a few questions about stories the Times has been covering. Can you get them all? First up. The United States aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln made its way into port. This week, the crew of the USS Lincoln got their first time off in more than 280 days, after their deployment to the Middle East dragged on way longer than expected. Now, on their way back to the U.S., they're getting some overdue time off in a city known for its nightlife and freewheeling atmosphere. Your question, where has the ship docked?

Don't worry about the city name we're just looking for the name of the country. As a hint, here are some of the rules the military has specifically put in place for the shore leave, no parasailing, no jet skiing, and no consuming marijuana, even though it's legal in the country and widely available. The answer? Thailand. The USS Lincoln is docked near the beach town of Pataya, which has been an R&R spot for U.S. soldiers going back decades to the Vietnam War. The ship is set to leave on Sunday when it'll head back toward its home port of San Diego. Next question. This week, a major fashion giant went public. in a closely watched stock market debut that turned out to be a flop.

The shares falling by about 2% at the Open, and then those losses are extending to as much as 10%. That would have been almost unthinkable just a few years ago when the company was valued at $100 billion. Brown V-neck top, it honestly feels amazing. For being like $8, I love it. It had become a household name during the pandemic when people started buying and buying and buying online. but the company's value has since plunged. Your question, what company is it? The answer? Yeah, there we go.

Sheehan, as Anthony was pointing out, losing a bit of Sheen. The fast fashion brand Sheehan, which revolutionized the clothing industry. At one point, the company was creating over 4,500 new styles a day, in part by using algorithms to predict what would be a hit with shoppers. But when the White House cracked down on trade loopholes that had let Sheehan ship mountain of cheap clothes from China, it was forced to raise prices. Revenues dropped, and investors say the company has not yet laid out a clear plan for how it will bounce back.

And last question. This week, the Billboard Hot 100 announced that Chuson Texas, Ella Langley's twangy tale of a Texas-Tenasy love triangle, broke the record for the most weeks at the top of the chart. There's one asterisk here, we will get to that later. Now Chusin' Texas has been in the number one spot for a whopping 20 weeks, edging out two other country-infused mega hits, which had been tied for the record. We're going to play you a short bit of those two songs.

See if you can name each one. First, this song was originally released in 2018. That was Lil Nas X's Old Town Road. And here is the other song that spent months and months in the number one slot. That one was a bar song, Tipsy, by Shibuzi. Now to that asterisk, choose in Texas, Old Town Road, and Tipsy have all held the record for non-holiday hit. The ultimate chart topper is Mariah Carey, whose inescapable holiday earworm, All I Want for Christmas is You, has spent a total of 22 weeks at the top of the billboard chart.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, too early, too early, please cut it off. I know we just hit September, guys, but we gotta wait at least a few more weeks, right? That is it for the news quiz. If you want to let us know how you did, our email is The Headlines at NYTimes.com. I'm Will Jarvis. The show will be back on Tuesday.

Have a great holiday weekend.