Peggy Flanagan, Trump ICC Sanctions, Caitlin Clark, Spider-Man: August 12, 2026

Transcript

This is Artificially Intelligent News for Wednesday, August twelfth, twenty twenty-six.

I’m Mark Ellison.

This program is created with artificial intelligence and fact-checked against current reporting and official sources before broadcast.

We begin with the midterm map.

Tuesday night brought a set of primaries with national consequences, especially in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

In Minnesota, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. Her victory over Representative Angie Craig puts a progressive candidate at the center of one of the most closely watched Senate races of the year.

Flanagan is now set to face Republican Michele Tafoya in November. Immigration enforcement was a major theme in the contest. So was the broader argument inside the Democratic Party over whether the party should move left or keep nominating more moderate candidates in competitive statewide races.

Minnesota also produced a surprise in the Republican race for governor. State House Speaker Lisa Demuth defeated Mike Lindell, who had President Trump’s support. Demuth is now positioned to challenge Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who won her party’s gubernatorial primary easily.

In Wisconsin, the Democratic primary for governor remained too close to call as of Wednesday morning. Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who had the backing of outgoing Governor Tony Evers, was in a tight race with state Representative Francesca Hong.

Republican Congressman Tom Tiffany secured his party’s nomination for governor.

The results show how unsettled the midterm environment remains. Immigration, voting rules, inflation, and the war with Iran are all shaping campaigns. But Tuesday’s primaries also showed that endorsements are not always enough, and that candidates running on sharper ideological messages can still break through.

Our second story is a lawsuit over the Trump administration’s sanctions on the International Criminal Court.

Human Rights Watch, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Open Society Institute filed suit in federal court in New York. They are challenging sanctions tied to the administration’s campaign against the ICC.

The groups argue the sanctions interfere with their human rights work and violate constitutional protections. The case centers on whether the U.S. government can punish organizations and individuals for cooperating with an international court that Washington says has no authority over the United States or Israel.

The administration has defended the sanctions as a measure to protect U.S. and Israeli sovereignty. The groups bringing the case say the policy chills speech and blocks legal work connected to alleged war crimes and other serious human rights investigations.

This is not a symbolic dispute. Sanctions can affect banking, travel, contracts, and communications. That means the lawsuit could shape how far any administration can go in isolating international legal bodies and the advocates who work with them.

Next, immigration enforcement is back in the spotlight.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it expects to equip every field officer and agent with body-worn cameras by the end of August.

The agency says the cameras are meant to improve transparency and accountability during arrests and field operations. But the policy also gives ICE discretion over when footage is released, especially when an investigation is still active or privacy issues are involved.

The announcement follows scrutiny of fatal encounters involving ICE officers that were not captured on body cameras. Civil liberties groups say the new equipment matters only if the footage can be accessed when the public most needs answers.

At the same time, immigration-related lawsuits continue around the country. In Florida, students at Florida International University have sued over discipline tied to an anti-ICE protest. In New York and other jurisdictions, civil rights groups continue to challenge courthouse arrests, detention conditions, and surveillance rules.

The practical question is whether body cameras become a real accountability tool or simply another internal record controlled by the agency.

Our fourth story is the economy.

Markets opened Wednesday focused on the July Consumer Price Index report, due at eight thirty Eastern time.

Economists expected annual inflation to cool slightly from June’s three point five percent reading. Investors were watching for signs that rent, wages, tariffs, and energy prices were either easing or feeding a more stubborn inflation cycle.

Before the report, U.S. stock futures were modestly higher. Oil was also higher, with geopolitical tension around Iran and key shipping routes still adding pressure to energy markets.

That combination matters for households. If inflation cools, the Federal Reserve has more room to hold rates steady or move toward easier policy later. If inflation runs hotter than expected, the Fed may keep borrowing costs elevated, affecting mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, and business investment.

As of Wednesday morning, this was a wait-for-the-number moment. The data will shape the next round of market expectations for the September Fed meeting.

Our fifth story looks up.

A total solar eclipse is crossing parts of the Northern Hemisphere today. NASA says the path of totality runs across Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, the Atlantic Ocean, Spain, and a small corner of Portugal.

Parts of North America will see a partial eclipse. In the United States, NASA says partial viewing stretches across portions of the northern U.S. from Alaska toward North Carolina, though many places will see only a small bite taken out of the sun.

The safety message is simple. Anyone viewing a partial solar eclipse directly needs certified eclipse glasses or a safe handheld solar viewer. Regular sunglasses are not enough.

NASA is also streaming the eclipse and conducting science work along the path. One NASA-funded team is using a high-altitude aircraft to study the sun’s corona. Student balloon teams are launching experiments to study how the temporary dimming affects Earth’s atmosphere.

And tonight, the sky gives viewers another reason to step outside. The Perseid meteor shower peaks from Wednesday night into early Thursday morning. The new moon should create darker skies than usual, making this a strong year for viewing if the weather cooperates.

The best advice is low-tech. Get away from city lights, give your eyes about thirty minutes to adjust, and look broadly at the sky between midnight and dawn.

Our sixth story is weather.

The National Hurricane Center is monitoring a low-pressure system in the central tropical Atlantic, about five hundred miles southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands as of Tuesday.

Forecasters said the system had a strong chance of becoming a tropical depression later this week as it moves west to west-northwest.

If it strengthens into a named tropical storm, it would be called Cristobal.

For now, the system is not an immediate threat to the U.S. Gulf Coast. Forecast guidance cited in regional reporting suggests it may curve north over the open Atlantic. But it is still early, and hurricane season is entering a more active stretch.

Two other Atlantic disturbances were also being watched, though with lower development chances.

The key point for listeners along the Gulf Coast and East Coast is not to react to one forecast model. Check the National Hurricane Center updates, especially once a defined circulation forms.

Our seventh news story returns to Washington.

President Trump’s pressure campaign over voting legislation continues to frame the Senate’s August calendar.

The president has demanded action on the SAVE America Act, a Republican-backed voting bill that would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote and photo identification before casting a ballot.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said Republicans do not have the votes to pass it under normal Senate rules. The party holds a majority, but most legislation still needs sixty votes to advance unless it qualifies for a special process.

Supporters say the bill is needed to strengthen election integrity. Voting rights advocates warn it could block eligible voters who do not have passports, birth certificates, or other documents readily available.

The fight is not only about election law. It is also about party discipline. Trump wants Senate Republicans to use every tool available. Thune has been more cautious, arguing that keeping the Senate in session does not solve the vote-count problem.

That dispute will carry into the fall, when midterm control of Congress is on the line.

Now to sports.

The Indiana Fever delivered one of the biggest WNBA statements of the week, beating the New York Liberty one hundred six to ninety-two in Indianapolis.

Kelsey Mitchell scored twenty-eight points. Caitlin Clark added twenty-two points and ten assists. Indiana’s backcourt controlled the first half, and the Fever shot at a blistering pace from three-point range before holding off New York’s push.

For the Liberty, it was a sharp reminder that their recent turnaround still has limits when the defense is missing key pieces. New York entered the matchup trying to build on a strong run, but the Fever again looked like a serious playoff threat.

Clark was also in the news before the game because the WNBA rescinded a technical foul that would have triggered a suspension. She played, and the Fever took full advantage.

Here is a quick scoreboard from Tuesday.

In the WNBA, the Indiana Fever beat the New York Liberty one hundred six to ninety-two.

The Las Vegas Aces ended Washington’s franchise-record winning streak, beating the Mystics eighty-six to seventy-six behind A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young.

The Phoenix Mercury beat the Los Angeles Sparks ninety-four to eighty-seven.

In Major League Baseball, the Atlanta Braves shut out the New York Mets four to nothing.

And the Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago White Sox five to four in ten innings.

Finally, entertainment.

Hollywood’s summer box office is being driven by a huge run from Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.

Barron’s reported that Spider-Man: Brand New Day has helped push the domestic summer box office past four billion dollars. The film, from Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios, has become the year’s biggest movie so far, with more than one and a half billion dollars globally in early August reporting.

The Odyssey has also crossed the billion-dollar mark worldwide, giving theaters a rare summer with multiple massive releases at the same time.

That matters because the movie business has spent years trying to prove that audiences will still show up for theatrical events. Streaming changed viewing habits. Labor strikes disrupted release calendars. Superhero fatigue became a real industry concern.

But this summer, familiar brands, premium formats, and big-screen spectacle are doing what studios wanted them to do. They are bringing people back to theaters in large numbers.

The question now is whether this is a durable recovery or a summer built around a few enormous titles.

That is the brief for Wednesday, August twelfth.

The top lines again.

Peggy Flanagan won Minnesota’s Democratic Senate primary. Human rights groups sued the Trump administration over ICC sanctions. ICE says body cameras are coming for field officers by the end of August. Markets are watching July inflation. A solar eclipse and the Perseids give skywatchers a rare double feature. The Atlantic may produce Tropical Storm Cristobal. The Fever beat the Liberty behind Kelsey Mitchell and Caitlin Clark. And Spider-Man: Brand New Day is powering a massive summer at the movies.

I’m Mark Ellison. This has been Artificially Intelligent News.