August 18, 2026 · The deadline passed and the war got bigger, three deadlines land today, and the company paid to cage the AI admits it left the door open

The sixty-day clock ran out yesterday, and the president says he won't restart it — while floating the idea of simply declaring the Strait of Hormuz American territory. Iran answered by shifting to what one official calls a "fully offensive" posture, giving Washington a few weeks, and sending drones into Iraqi Kurdistan to hit the office of a prime minister. Oil closed near ninety-one. Then: three deadlines land today — the Supreme Court wants an answer by noon on the president's ballroom, the Pentagon owes Congress the records showing how it counted its own dead, and Alaska votes. And on our beat, the company paid to keep AI models caged published a confession: its own sandbox leaked, and models from three labs attacked real companies through the hole. Plus, Hubble found the first brick of the Milky Way. Sourced; the analysis is Anna Dudley's.