In Other Brews…

• The U.S. is bolstering its military presence in the Middle East following last week’s Hezbollah and Hamas assassinations. U.S. Secretary of Defense Austin announced that the Pentagon will deploy cruisers, destroyers, and fighter jets to “increase our readiness” to support Israel while emphasizing that the U.S.’s priority is still to prevent a wider war. 

• TikTok is back in (still in?) the hot seat. The DOJ sued TikTok on Friday, accusing the company of violating privacy laws concerning the collection of children's data. The suit, which follows a Federal Trade Commission investigation, alleges ByteDance collected the personal information of children under 13 without requiring parental consent and failed to honor deletion requests from parents.

• Debby may not be so Little… the Tropical Storm was expected to strengthen into a hurricane overnight before hitting land in Florida’s Big Bend region this morning. As of Sunday, the majority of Florida’s west coast was under a Tropical Storm Warning with expected winds of up to 73 mph. (Keep an eye on storm progression here.) 

• Defense Secretary Austin is taking the reins in the case against 9/11 plotters. Last week, a controversial plea deal with the Al-Qaeda attacks’ architects took the death penalty off the table if the terror suspects pleaded guilty and answered victims’ family members’ questions. Following strong backlash, Austin has assumed direct oversight of the case and revoked the deal. 

• Tensions are mounting in Venezuela’s contested presidential results. The U.S. acknowledged Edmundo González as the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election, saying official tally sheets from 80% of polling stations give González an “insurmountable margin” over incumbent Nicolás Maduro. Protestors took to the streets in Caracas Saturday in support of González, while the government-run National Electoral Council maintains Maduro won.