Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Seth Moulton largely agree on most policy issues, but they found a way to disagree in almost every response during tonight’s debate ahead of the Democratic primary in the Massachusetts Senate race.

“How do we address health care? No. 1, we’ve got to bring healthcare for all, and that’s something the senator and I agree on,” Moulton said earlier in the debate.

“Well, first of all, we don’t agree,” Markey responded. “I support 'Medicare for All,' and Congressman Moulton does not.”

In addition to healthcare, the two candidates drew distinctions with each other on issues like affordability, campaign contributions and artificial intelligence during the debate, co-hosted by WBUR, WCVB and The Boston Globe.

The U.S. has designated Myanmar scholar and U.S. citizen Min Zin as wrongfully detained after his arrest by Chinese authorities in June, a senior State Department official told Reuters, a move that makes securing his release a top U.S. priority.

The designation for Min Zin, who is accused of endangering Chinese national security, comes just weeks before Trump is scheduled to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House.

Rights groups have urged the U.S. to press China for the release of Min Zin, who leads a think tank focused on Myanmar, ahead of Xi’s anticipated Sept. 24 visit.

“U.S. citizen Min Zin has been detained by Chinese security services on undefined charges since June 3. For nearly 11 weeks, he has been subjected to repeated interrogations, isolation and detention conditions,” the official said today.

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President Donald Trump and his former fixer Michael Cohen are putting their contentious past behind them.

Trump today joined Cohen, who has testified against him in Congress and in court, for an interview on Cohen’s radio show. The appearance, via phone, marked a new chapter in the pair’s fraught relationship after years of feuding that included Cohen’s serving as a star witness in two trials targeting Trump and congressional testimony in which he called his former boss a “racist, a con man and a cheat.”

During the show, Cohen struck a different tone, quoting a Bible verse about forgiveness, playing the song “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” and largely avoiding mention of their previous clashes.

Trump, for his part, touched on some of their past, saying his former ally had been “weaponized ... like nobody’s ever been weaponized.”

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Jill Biden.  TODAY

Former first lady Jill Biden said in a podcast episode released today that doctors for former President Joe Biden don't think he will die from his stage 4 prostate cancer but that it is likely to be "something else."

"They said he probably won’t die of cancer. It’ll be something else," she said on "The Jamie Kern Lima Show."

"They’re pretty confident that they can, well, the prostate cancer is under control. But it’s the bones, the cancer in the bones — that’s the scary part," she added.

The former president

Florida Democrats have failed to win a Senate race since 2012. Democrats hope to change that this year in what is expected to be a competitive midterm cycle.

The FBI seized former Rep. Eric Swalwell's electronic devices and searched his home over the weekend, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Former Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif. Jeff Chiu / AP

The FBI stopped Swalwell, a Democratic former congressman from California, at the San Francisco airport Saturday, and his electronic devices were taken as part of the execution of a search warrant, the person said.

Agents searched Swalwell's home in Washington, D.C., the next day, the person said, adding that both actions are related to an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against him.

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How many nuclear weapons does Kim Jong Un have? South Korea suggested today that the number is far higher than the 57 “very powerful nuclear weapons” Trump cited publicly — and that it prefers to avoid public discussion of such sensitive details about the threat from North Korea, its reclusive neighbor.

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The Democratic National Committee sued the Trump administration today, saying it believes documents related to planned investigative efforts related to ballots, voting machines and the upcoming midterm elections are being withheld.

“Following the seizure of archived ballots from Fulton County, Georgia—and seeking to ensure that the Trump Administration does not attempt unprecedented abuses of criminal law enforcement tools to undermine upcoming elections—the Democratic National Committee (DNC) sent requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), to components of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) concerning any planned seizure of ballots, voting machines, and other voting system components,” DNC attorney Daniel Freeman wrote.

Election workers count Fulton County ballots at State Farm Arena in Atlanta in 2020. Jessica McGowan / Getty Images file

The DNC says that five months after the FOIA request was filed, it has yet to receive any responsive documents. It says it hasn't even received a list of documents withheld under statutory exemptions.

“By withholding responsive documents past statutory deadlines, DOJ is violating FOIA,” Freeman wrote.

The DNC is asking a federal judge to order the Justice Department to conduct searches for any and all responsive records to its FOIA requests in a timely manner.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., today endorsed Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., as Markey runs for re-election against a younger House Democrat, Rep. Seth Moulton, who is calling for generational change.

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., at the Massachusetts Democratic Party convention on May 30. John Tlumacki / Boston Globe via Getty Images file

“At a time when powerful special interests are making life harder for everyday Americans, Massachusetts working families need a champion in the U.S. Senate to stand up for them and fight corporate greed,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. She added, "[Markey's] work is an inspiration to many of us who are committed to building a better future for all, and that’s why I’m proud to endorse him.”

The endorsement is a boost for Markey's campaign, even though he has been leading in recent polls of the race, as he has pushed back against Moulton's argument that Markey, 80, is too old to serve another term.

The Boston Globe's editorial board endorsed Moulton's campaign Tuesday, centering on his call for generational change in the Democratic Party.

Trump joined his former lawyer-turned-nemesis Michael Cohen for a radio interview today in what Cohen is billing as a potential rapprochement.

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former attorney. Angela Weiss / AFP-Getty Images

The conversation was taped this morning and will air in part at 6 p.m. ET tonight on WABC radio. The rest will air on Cohen’s Sunday night radio show, “When You Know, You Know,” also on WABC.

In a Substack post ahead of the interview titled "The Impossible Reunion," Cohen acknowledged his tumultuous relationship with Trump and how he found "forgiveness."

Cohen wrote that people keep asking him the same question about the interview: "How can two men who spent years in a very public war, who hurled verbal missiles across an enormous legal and political canyon, ever sit down together again?"

Cohen spoke to Trump this morning for 40 minutes over the phone in an interview that will air partly tonight at 6 p.m. The full interview will air Sunday at 6 p.m. on Cohen’s radio show, “When You Know, You Know."

Cohen is keeping a tight lid on what was said until it airs tonight, but he told NBC News: "There are things that he said to me that I have never heard before. It was a great interview, and people will be shocked when they hear it."

IndyCar is set to present a customized helmet to first lady Melania Trump this afternoon in the White House Rose Garden.

IndyCar specifically designed it for her, the first lady’s senior adviser Marc Beckman told NBC News.

This comes ahead of the Grand Prix being held in Washington, D.C. on Saturday and Sunday as part of the celebration marking the nation’s 250th anniversary.

IndyCar's Freedom 250 Grand Prix racing helmet that will be gifted to Melania Trump.  IndyCar

IndyCar

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged South Korea not to take sides between Beijing and Washington, saying the U.S. should abandon its “hostile” policy toward North Korea to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, left, and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun yesterday. Xinhua / Shutterstock

Wang made the remarks in a meeting with South Korean National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac in Seoul today, Chinese state media reported, where he also met South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.

“The fundamental solution to the tensions on the Korean Peninsula lies in addressing the root causes of the problem and urging the United States to abandon its hostile policy toward North Korea,” Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, cited Wang as saying.

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Vice President JD Vance confirmed in a post to X that White House Legislative Director James Braid is leaving the administration.

"He has served the President with distinction and I couldn’t be prouder of him," Vance said in the post. "Very excited to see what he does next."

The White House legislative director serves as the administration’s point person for working to pass the president’s priorities through Congress.

Vance credited Braid with playing a "critical role in all of the administration’s achievements" in the GOP-led Congress, pointing to the sweeping tax cut and spending bill that Republicans passed last year, funding for Trump's immigration priorities and negotiations with Democrats to end two government shutdowns.

Trump will do "a lap of honor around the course" in the president's vehicle, known as the "beast," at Sunday's IndyCar race in downtown Washington, a White House official confirmed today.

First lady Melania Trump and other members of Trump's family will be in attendance at the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, and there "will be flyovers," the official added.

The New York Post was first to report on the president's planned lap around the track.

Trump is also set to wave the green flag at the start of the race, Penske Corp. President Bud Denker said in a video posted to X by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy yesterday. Duffy will wave the checkered flag at the end of the race.

A Missouri judge has allowed new U.S. House districts backed by Trump to be used in the November elections, rejecting a bid to put the Republican-friendly districts to a statewide vote of the people.

Protesters against a Missouri congressional redistricting plan gather outside the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson on May 12. David A. Lieb / AP file

The ruling yesterday by Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green is a victory for Republicans seeking to hold on to their slim majority in the U.S. House. But the case is likely to end up in the state Supreme Court.

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Total U.S. debt has topped $40 trillion for the first time, the Treasury Department said yesterday, drawing fresh warnings that a fiscal crisis is brewing as ballooning costs for social safety-net programs and interest payments far outstrip revenues held back by tax cuts.

A billboard showing the U.S. national debt in Washington, D.C., yesterday. Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images

The Treasury’s latest daily cash and debt balances statement showed total public debt outstanding at $40.047 trillion on Tuesday, a total that includes Treasury securities held by the public of $32.266 trillion and intragovernmental debt holdings of $7.782 trillion.

The federal government’s IOU has now more than doubled in less than a decade, from $19.95 trillion when Trump was sworn in for the first time in January 2017. Roughly one-third of that increase occurred during two years of frantic government borrowing to fund the Covid-19 pandemic responses undertaken by Trump and former President Joe Biden, with the fiscal policy choices of both presidents combining with long-running tax-and-spending imbalances to account for the rest.

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Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., acknowledged last night that she “tripped up” during a debate when she said national security was “not my thing,” prompting a wave of questions about her qualifications to hold on to her seat for a full term.

Sen. Darline Graham during a debate in Newberry, S.C., on Tuesday. Peter Zay / Anadolu via Getty Images

“I’ve said many times I’m not a politician, certainly not a career politician. I don’t speak politician. I was just honest, and I think that’s kind of a foreign concept,” Graham said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

Graham’s flub came as Newsmax moderator Greta Van Susteren asked whether she viewed Taiwan and the South China Sea as priorities. Graham avoided directly answering the question, saying that while national security was not her strong suit, “I do support the military.”

She told Hannity tonight that she talked to several people across the state after the debate and that they were “concerned about a lot of other things other than Taiwan,” listing voter concerns about the Second Amendment, the SAVE America Act and immigration.

Mike Lindell, a fierce Trump ally and the founder of MyPillow, says he’s willing to foot the bill for a full recount in Minnesota’s GOP primary for governor — a race he lost this month by 11 percentage points.

CEO of MyPillow Mike Lindell. Kayla Bartkowski / Getty Images

In a brief phone call with NBC News yesterday, Lindell said that he had hired his own team to begin investigating the Aug. 11 Republican primary, which NBC News projects state House Speaker Lisa Demuth won, and that he had reached out to the Minnesota secretary of state’s office to ask for a cost estimate for a recount.

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Trump warned of economic consequences against any country that provided “any type of lifeline to Iran“ as the United States looks to resolve a war it began alongside Israel nearly six months ago.

Thousands have been killed in the war, which quickly drew in Gulf nations and shocked global markets as Iran flexed its ability to curb shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which carried about a fifth of the world’s traded oil before February.

The U.S. and Iran have twice announced ceasefire deals, in April and June, aiming to restore the free flow of shipping through Hormuz on a path towards ending the conflict, but both quickly crumbled even as Israel has largely withdrawn from the fighting.

In a social media message yesterday, Trump promised “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,” although details were scant.

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