Good Morning! Today’s edition is 908 words, a 4-minute read.

What’s on tap: 

• Letby case hospital failures

• Space weapons

• Four snake bites in four years

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Big Stories

Mail Voting Rules Blocked

• The Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration from implementing new mail-ballot requirements ahead of November's midterm elections, allowing states to continue using their existing voting procedures.

• The Postal Service's rules would have required election officials to use approved ballot-envelope designs and submit voter information through a federal online portal. Noncompliant mailings would be subject to rejection. State officials argued they didn't have enough time to overhaul their systems with voting already underway, and said that valid ballots could go undelivered.

• The rules remain blocked while the underlying lawsuit continues, meaning the Court has not permanently settled whether the Postal Service can impose them. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, while Brett Kavanaugh said implementing the requirements this close to the election would violate federal administrative law.

Atlantic Stays Quiet

• The Atlantic has reached Sept. 15 without producing a single hurricane, the longest wait for a season’s first hurricane since modern satellite tracking began in 1966.

• Five tropical storms have formed since the season began June 1, but none reached the 74-mph winds required to become a hurricane. The previous record for the latest first hurricane was Sept. 11, reached in both 2002 and 2013. A strengthening El Niño has helped suppress activity by increasing wind shear over the Atlantic, making it harder for storms to organize and strengthen.

• The quiet start doesn't mean the season is finished. Atlantic hurricane activity typically peaks around Sept. 10 and can continue through November, and NOAA's preseason forecast called for two to six hurricanes this year. Strong El Niño events have historically produced near- or below-average Atlantic seasons.

Failures Behind the Letby Case 

• A public inquiry found “complete failure” at the British hospital where nurse Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies, concluding that some infants could have been saved if staff had acted sooner.

• According to the inquiry, babies began dying or suddenly collapsing in June 2015, and doctors increasingly raised concerns about Letby as the incidents mounted. Hospital leaders failed to invoke safeguarding procedures, didn't remove her from the neonatal unit until July 2016, and waited until 2017 to contact police. Parents were kept unaware for years that officials suspected their babies may have been deliberately harmed, and the hospital's former CEO was found to have stalled police involvement for roughly a year.

• Meanwhile, Letby's convictions are also being challenged by a panel of nearly 30 medical experts assembled by her defense, who found no evidence the babies were murdered and attributed their deaths and collapses to natural causes or poor medical care. Letby maintains her innocence and is seeking another review of her convictions.

Quick Stories

US News

• A 21-year-old Pennsylvania man was charged with receiving a firearm and ammunition in support of ISIS after allegedly claiming affiliation with the group and preparing for a “mission.” (More)

• The Iran war has cost the U.S. military about $38 billion through Aug. 1 and depleted up to two-thirds of certain missile-defense interceptors, per CBO report. (More)

• The U.S. confirmed for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space to defend against attacks from adversaries. (More)

World

• NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Lithuanian airspace overnight in the first known interception of its kind over the NATO member. (More)

• The Panama Canal will cut daily ship traffic by 18% from August levels as worsening drought strains the water supply needed to operate its locks. (More)

• El Salvador handed down its first life sentence for aggravated femicide, convicting a man of fatally stabbing his neighbor just 42 days after the killing. (More)

Business & Economy

• US stock markets closed lower on Tuesday (S&P -0.45%, Nasdaq -0.78%, Dow -0.63%), as Treasury yields surged to multiyear highs. (More)

• The Senate dealt a major blow to crypto regulation legislation Tuesday as the Clarity Act received just 50 of the 60 votes needed to advance. (More)

• Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife will donate $1.1 billion to an Oregon medical center and heart institute in one of the largest U.S. healthcare gifts ever. (More)

Sports & Entertainment

• Lionel Messi will play his final game for Argentina on Oct. 6 against Benin in Buenos Aires as the national team gives its longtime captain a formal send-off. (More)

• Major U.S. sports leagues and players’ unions are urging states to permanently ban bettors from legal sportsbooks for threatening or harassing athletes and their families. (More)

• Los Angeles prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against Nick Reiner if he is convicted of killing his parents, Rob and Michele Singer Reiner. (More)

Science, Health, & Tech

• The brain undergoes major changes beginning around age 50 as immune cells shift and genome organization deteriorates. The changes could help explain why neurodegenerative disease risk rises with age. (More)

• An astrophysics study suggests Venus once had a moon that gradually spiraled toward the planet and crashed into it due to Venus’ extremely slow rotation. (More)

• Paleontologists found the first Diplodocus fossils outside North America in Spain, providing evidence that dinosaurs moved between North America and Europe. (More)

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