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The “Godzilla” El Niño Is Coming & Fox News Boycotts Trump?

The U.S. Is Sanctioning The ICC & Data Centers Hit A Speed Bump

Author

Marcus Gee-Lim
September 22, 2026

Hi readers, we’re back to our regularly-scheduled programming! Today we’re covering Trump’s clash with the press, the White House’s campaign against the ICC, the U.S.’s (possible) withdrawal from Europe, a redistricting scramble in Missouri, a bad time for data centers, and the “Godzilla” El Niño.

“There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!” – Percy Bysshe Shelley

Did The White House Just Cross A Red Line?

Last Friday, Trump banned some of the biggest news organizations in the country from the White House. In a Truth Social post, the president stated that CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO were officially banned from the White House “as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS,” adding that the ban was put in place because the outlets “constantly write or report fiction or lies” about his administration. He didn’t state under what law, exactly, the ban would be implemented or who it would actually affect, though he did warn that there “may be others to join them.” On Saturday, reporters from each outlet were blocked from entering the White House.

The week started exactly how you’d expect it to after that news – with the three outlets issuing a joint statement announcing that they were pursuing legal action against the Trump administration over the ban. “This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” they wrote.

The five news outlets that make up the rotating “pool” of organizations that travel with the president to report on his events also took action on Monday. That group, which includes Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC, and also CNN, announced that they would be suspending TV coverage of the president’s activities. “Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the president,” wrote Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton, who’s also the sitting chair of the television pool consortium (which operates under a rotating chairmanship). “This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties,” he went on, adding, “There will be no replacement pool put in place.” Other outlets also joined in by pausing their photo coverage of the president.

The boycott left Trump literally shouting into the wind as he unveiled the White House’s new helipad on Monday, as the few second-tier outlets present at the ceremony didn’t bring any high-performance audio equipment. We’ll have to wait and see if Trump’s need for attention or news outlets’ need for coverage makes one side cave first.

Holding The Court In Contempt

“The International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, Netherlands” by Tony Webster. CC BY 2.0.

  • On Sunday, the White House began preparing massive sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC), the global institution that prosecutes war crimes and genocide. The sanctions are set to be officially announced as early as this week’s U.N. General Assembly meeting, and will reportedly target the institution as a whole (prior ICC sanctions targeted individual judges and prosecutors).

  • The move could set up a massive test of current global norms. On paper, U.S sanctions would “simply” block the entire court from interacting with U.S. citizens and companies. In reality, though, the sanctions would cut off the court from the entire global finance system, as banks across the globe rely heavily on the U.S. dollar and are quick to sever ties with any organization or country targeted by Washington’s sanctions. 

  • The sanctions are part of a wider campaign against the court by the Trump White House, which has taken issue with the court’s arrest warrants for Israeli leaders and its past investigation into American troops’ conduct in Afghanistan. Once the sanctions are officially announced, the global community will be forced to find a way to keep the court in operation – or simply allow the Trump White House to dismantle it.

No More Eurotripping?

  • Late last week, reports that the U.S. military is weighing a massive troop withdrawal from Europe began swirling in the media. According to those stories, the Pentagon is considering plans to withdraw one-third of all its soldiers stationed across Europe – the drawdown would also see the U.S. remove a chunk of its planes, ships, and weapons out of the region. 

  • Currently, the U.S. has 80,000 soldiers currently stationed across the continent, meaning up to 25,000 of those troops could be sent home. Making matters worse, two sources with knowledge of the discussions told the media that the withdrawal could be even larger, leading to a maximum of 40,000 troops leaving Europe. The rumors have worried leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, who warn that the drawdown could encourage future Russian aggression.

Additional World News

Missouri Midterm Madness

  • Yesterday, a federal appeals court revived a Republican effort to change Missouri’s voting districts despite multiple rulings against the redistricting by the Supreme Court and Missouri’s highest court. The move comes just a few months before midterms, and is expected to provide the GOP with an extra seat in the House of Representatives by deleting a district in Kansas City (which is confusingly not in Kansas) currently held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.

  • The new Republican-favored map was approved by Missouri’s Republican-controlled government earlier this year, when state governments across the country were trying to redistrict in order to net their respective parties more House seats. The new map was used in Missouri’s primary elections last month, but was promptly blocked from further use by the Missouri Supreme Court, which ruled 7-0 that the map had never legally taken effect. The state’s government appealed that ruling in the federal court system, sparking a court battle that eventually ended with the national Supreme Court blocking the new map from future use. 

  • But on Monday, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the court must use the new map for the upcoming midterms, which could net Republicans another House seat depending on how the federal court system handles the new ruling.

Bears Maul Data Centers

  • Backlash against data centers is now hitting companies where it hurts – their wallets. Over the past few weeks, multiple data center-related companies looking to go public have delayed their initial public offerings (IPOs) as investors are increasingly skeptical about their outsized growth projections, blocking executives and investors from accessing the billions of dollars they want from public markets.

  • One of those companies is SB Energy, a data center firm that’s a subsidiary of Japanese investing giant SoftBank Group. The firm was hoping to IPO this month with a valuation of $50 billion, which would provide a windfall to SoftBank as well as OpenAI and Nvidia (which are invested in the company as well), but the offering has been stalled because there aren’t enough investors willing to buy SB Energy stock at the target price.

  • Data center firms aren’t the only companies affected by the skepticism. Last week, Holtec Nuclear, a nuclear company focused on developing small modular reactors to power data centers, announced it was pausing its IPO plans indefinitely because “impaired investor confidence in the market for new public offerings.” Does this mean the AI train is actually slowing down? Not necessarily, but it is surprising to see it hit a speed bump.

Additional USA News

 

A Godzilla Among El Niños

  • Summer officially ends today, but it seems like things are only going to get hotter this year. Recent temperature data shows that the coming El Niño weather phenomenon – which is (in short) when waters in the Pacific Ocean heat up, causing various effects across the globe – has already reached record-breaking highs months before it’s projected to hit its peak.

  • According to data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the waters at the heart of this year’s El Niño have already warmed by 3.05°C, breaking the previous record of 3.02°C set in November 2015, which was the highest temperature rise seen in 150 years.

  • Using that information, scientists now predict that this year’s El Niño will see water temperatures rise by a peak of 4.0°C in November and December. That has led researchers to describe this El Niño as “Godzilla-level,” as any temperature rise greater than 0.5°C is deemed an El Niño and a 2°C is described as a “super” El Niño. The phenomenon is expected to raise global temperatures in the coming months, bringing hot and dry conditions to the Northern U.S. and Canada, increased flood risks to the Southern U.S. and South America, typhoons across the Pacific, and drier weather to southeast Asia and Oceania.

Additional Reads

Peanut For Your Thoughts

It’s good to be back! Can’t wait for the insanity of the midterms!

Editor + Writer: Marcus Gee-Lim

Designer: Joe Stella