Daily Briefing: Abortion on the ballot

Two more states have put abortion on the ballot this fall. COVID-19 is in full effect this summer, with major spikes in cases across the country. We take a look at failed housing voucher programs.

🙋🏼‍♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert, Daily Briefing author. Adults can get Happy Meals, too.

Arizona and Missouri will vote on abortion access

Missouri and Arizona join six other states voting on abortion rights in the upcoming presidential election. On Tuesday, Missouri state officials greenlit a ballot initiative, allowing residents to determine the fate of the state's total abortion ban. This comes one day after Arizona officials said they received enough petition signatures to put an abortion ballot measure before voters this November.

The background: More than two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Missouri is one of 14 states with a total abortion ban. Arizona passed a law in 2022 that bans abortion after 15 weeks

• Voter-initiated ballot measures have already been approved for the November ballot in Colorado, Florida, Nevada, and South Dakota.
• What makes ballot measures different: Experts say voters are more willing to cross party lines to support an issue like abortion when it is separated on a ballot from a political candidate.
• Any of these November measures could be challenged in a court, and every state's ballot measure is a little different. Some abortion rights groups say detractors have intentionally capitalized on confusion over the patchwork of ballot measures to deter their success.

You probably know someone with COVID right now

Health officials are now classifying COVID-19 as "endemic" as over half of the United States have reported "very high" levels of COVID-19 activity, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. Several Midwestern states reported the most positive tests for the past week, with the KP.3.1.1 variant accounting for 27.8% of positive infections in the country. Track COVID-19 positivity in your state.

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• Time to play today's USA TODAY Crossword! Click here for Sally's expert analysis.

What's the weather today? Check your local forecast here.

FBI probes apparent hacks on candidates

The FBI confirmed Monday afternoon it’s investigating allegations that Iranian cyber agents breached Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in another case of foreign intelligence services targeting U.S. elections, as the Kamala Harris campaign revealed it was the victim of a failed hack attempt. But news of the infiltration came quickly after news organizations received what appeared to be a document examining Sen. JD Vance’s vulnerabilities. Read more

US approves $20 billion Israel arms package

Iran could be preparing to attack Israel imminently after the killings of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in Tehran and Beirut. Amid this tense situation, the State Department on Tuesday cleared the sale to Israel of dozens of fighter jets and other military equipment worth over $20 billion. Read more

Keep scrolling

• The Court of Arbitration for Sport erred during appeal to get Jordan Chiles' bronze medal back.
• Katy Perry might have dancedon the wrong beach in her new music video.
• A place for life on Mars?
• Brat summer is almost over. Get ready for "demure" fall.
• Delta Air Lines passengers are struggling to get reimbursements after a global outage.

This is supposed to help poor families rent a home. It fails.

Thousands of people across the country are losing their federal housing vouchers before they can ever use them. Until recently, the true scale of this problem was unknown. But a groundbreaking analysis by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University found that in 2022, nearly half of households awarded housing vouchers never redeemed them, and the government does not require local authorities who administer the vouchers to track or improve these high failure rates. Read more

Photo of the day: Jim Harbaugh in a different shade of blue

Worse setbacks can be imagined for a franchise banking on a revival. As Jim Harbaugh returns to the NFL after leading Michigan to a national championship, the Los Angeles Chargers' star quarterback Justin Herbert is sidelined by a foot injury. It's hard to say if Harbaugh is worried.

Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com.