Good morning! The weekend edition is 648 words, a 3-minute read.

What’s on tap: 

• Iran strikes

• Gene therapy restores sight

• Years of income needed to buy a house

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Today’s Big Story

Texas Mandates Bible Readings

• Texas approved a required reading list yesterday for more than 5 million public school students that includes Bible passages alongside literary classics, a policy educators say is unprecedented in a statewide curriculum.

• The list contains about 200 required works spanning kindergarten through high school, including stories such as "David and Goliath" and New Testament passages about Jesus. Students will also read authors including Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Shakespeare, often paired with supporting historical or religious texts.

• Supporters say the curriculum reflects the Judeo-Christian traditions that shaped the nation's founding, while critics argue it blurs the separation of church and state and limits teachers' ability to choose age-appropriate reading. Because Texas educates roughly one in 10 US public school students, the decision could influence curriculum debates well beyond the state.

Saturday’s Quick Hits

• Former national security adviser John Bolton pleaded guilty Friday to one count of unauthorized retention of national defense information, resolving a case stemming from classified material he kept after serving in the first Trump administration. Bolton agreed to pay $2.25 million and faces up to five years in prison at his Oct. 28 sentencing. (More)

• Jurors deliberating the criminal trial over the cause of Los Angeles' devastating 2025 Palisades Fire said they were deadlocked Friday, prompting the judge to urge further deliberations rather than declare a mistrial. Defendant Jonathan Rinderknecht faces federal arson charges alleging he started a New Year's Day fire that later grew into the disaster. (More)

• Cape Verde advanced to the World Cup knockout stage in its tournament debut after a 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia, and Spain's 1-0 win over Uruguay secured second place in Group H. The island nation of just over 500,000 people is the first World Cup debutant to reach the knockout round since Slovakia in 2010. (More)

• New York City's Rent Guidelines Board voted to freeze rents on roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, marking the first freeze on both one- and two-year leases in the program's history. The change, affecting about 2 million tenants, takes effect for leases signed beginning in October, though landlord groups are considering legal challenges. (More)

• Scientists developed a two-step treatment that enabled mice to regenerate bone, joints, and ligaments after amputation by redirecting healing away from scar tissue. While the regenerated limbs were imperfect, researchers say the approach could eventually improve wound healing and tissue repair, with one of the key growth factors already approved for medical use. (More)

• The US launched airstrikes on Iranian military sites yesterday after accusing Tehran of violating a ceasefire by attacking commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz with drones. Iran vowed a "swift and decisive" response after the strikes, the first direct US military action since the two countries reached a peace agreement earlier this month. (More)

Weekly Dose of Positive

• A five-year-old girl painted thank-you pictures for firefighters whose quick search for her severed fingertips helped surgeons successfully reattach them after a playground merry-go-round accident. (More)

• A pioneering gene therapy restored a six-year-old girl's vision from a rare inherited blindness. Researchers report improved eyesight in most treated children in the UK study. (More)

• New York lawmakers passed "Kyra's Law," requiring judges to prioritize credible domestic violence and child abuse evidence in custody cases. The bill now awaits Governor Kathy Hochul's signature. (More)

• Australian surgeons performed the country's first simultaneous cochlear implant surgery on deaf twin boys, allowing them to hear their parents' voices together for the first time. (More)

Extra Credit

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Meet Gus, the 40-ft-tall T. rex headed for auction.

Years of income needed to buy a home by state.