Wins

President Donald Trump pledged Wednesday to send every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, an extraordinary gambit to reverse his party’s sagging fortunes in November.

The dubious promise would likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval, and would further exacerbate the country’s nearly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit and concerns about inflation.

“If the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000,” Trump said during the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas. “It will be called the Trump Dividend.”

He likened the payments to a corporation’s distributions to shareholders, citing “our tremendous strength and success economically.”

Within an hour, Vice President JD Vance appeared to try to walk back Trump’s proposal — at least in part — by suggesting the dividend payments would not go to the wealthy. Vance suggested it could be paid for by U.S. tariff revenues, though the suggested payment dwarfs what the U.S. has taken in through the protectionist measures.

The White House did not respond to a message seeking details.

Congress would need to approve or otherwise acquiesce to the payment. The sum would far exceed U.S. tariff revenues even before the Supreme Court tossed much of the president’s tariff program last year.

The national debt last month topped $40 trillion for the first time.

Trump has frequently lamented that, during the modern era, the president’s party almost always loses seats in Congress during the midterms, and he has looked for unorthodox ways to defy the trend, including this week’s convention.

“We’re going to change that,” Trump said. “There’s no reason for it.”

Marc Goldwein, the senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a think tank in Washington, said Trump has no authority send money to Americans without approval from Congress.

Goldwein added that dividends are something that companies pay when there’s a surplus, but the U.S. is running $2 trillion annual deficits and has $40 trillion in debt.

“The idea that we’ve had fiscal success is backwards and bordering on laughable,” he said. “We don’t have surpluses to give away.”

The move was reminiscent of billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to buy votes in last year’s Wisconsin state Supreme Court race, where he handed out million-dollar checks to voters to try to boost a candidate who ultimately lost.

Trump has discussed the possibility before but has never tied it to his party’s electoral fortunes. Earlier this year, he proposed a $2,000 dividend and said he didn’t think he needed approval from Congress.

Last year, Trump gave members of the military a $1,776 check that he called a “warrior dividend.”

“I will get a bill ready so that we can get the Trump Dividend passed immediately after the November 3rd election,” Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio wrote on X late Wednesday. “Because Republicans (and America) will win!”

A $5,000 check would give each American more money than they received in direct government payments from COVID-19 relief measures during Trump’s first term.

Trump’s proposal would be legal because the payment would go to everyone regardless of how they voted, or whether they voted at all, said New Mexico-based attorney John Day.

“This is a campaign promise,” Day said. “It’s not a payment to individuals to try to get them to vote in a particular way.”

Republicans are on defense as they look to defend their narrow House majority against strong headwinds. Trump is unpopular, and Americans overwhelmingly oppose the war in Iran. Even the Senate, which Republicans once were well-positioned to keep, is up for grabs.

Cooper writes for the Associated Press. Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and River Zhang contributed.

Matthew Brennan emerged victorious in the 16th stage of the Vuelta a Espana to claim his fourth stage win of this year’s race.

The British Visma Lease-a-bike rider sprinted to victory ahead of Bryan Coquard and Vito Braet in Palos de la Frontera.

Brennan, 21, held up four fingers to celebrate each of his four stage wins in his first Grand Tour.

“It’s unbelievable, four victories here and the plan was for one,” Brennan said after the 181km stage.

Stage 16 was expected to be another chance for the sprinters.

A five-man breakaway got up the road early on, but with 100km remaining the peloton started to reel them in. The break was caught with around 23km remaining, setting up the bunch sprint finale.

Spanish rider Enric Mas of Team Movistar maintained his 2min 6sec general classification lead on Felix Gall, with Primoz Roglic a further four seconds behind.

The next stage takes place on Wednesday, consisting of 185km from Dos Hermanas to Seville, offering another sprint finale.

For the first time since World War II, a far-right party is within reach of power at state level in Germany, after coming first in Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) won 44 percent of the vote, stopping short of an overall majority but making clear its wide political significance.

On election night, AfD’s leader in the state called on other political groups to cooperate. “As a democrat, I will reach out to all those who wish to work with us to bring about a fundamental political turnaround,” Ulrich Siegmund said.

Yet, forming a government will prove difficult. The AfD has been classified as “far-right extremist” by the domestic intelligence agency and other political groups remain wary of striking an alliance.

The AfD has dismissed accusations of extremism and mainstream parties have been unable to halt its surge in the polls over recent months. Latest polling indicates the party, which stands for strong restrictions on immigration, restoring ties with Russia, cutting support to Ukraine and quitting the euro, is Germany’s most popular at national level.

The Saxony-Anhalt election could be a harbinger of a historic return of the far-right in the 2029 national election, when forecasts say the AfD stands a realistic chance of finishing first.

What happened in Saxony-Anhalt?

Siegmund, the charismatic 35-year-old who attracted thousands to his campaign rallies, said AfD “made history”.

“The people have made it absolutely clear that they finally want political change and, above all, they have shown that they want it with ⁠us,” he told supporters.

The AfD achieved its best-ever election result in Saxony-Anhalt with 44 percent of the vote, leaving all other parties far behind. The incumbent centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, scored less than half of that share with 17 percent.

The AfD is projected to gain 39 of the 83 seats in the state parliament in Magdeburg, leaving it three short of the 42 needed for an absolute majority.

That means the party must find allies, but all other mainstream parties refuse to work with the far-right, a strategy of non-cooperation known as the “firewall”. The AfD has so far never participated in a governing coalition in Germany’s 16 states nor in its federal government.

While he now appears willing to strike deals with other parties to come to power, previously Siegmund signalled unwillingness to find middle ground with other political groups. Leading up to the vote, he stated that he was only interested in governing alone to bring about fundamental political change in Germany.

How did AfD fare in recent elections?

The election takes the AfD one step closer to advancing its agenda, while also reflecting the growing unpopularity of Germany’s ruling coalition.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the party more than doubled its vote share — from 21 percent in the last election. By contrast, the CDU’s vote halved from 37 percent to 17 percent, its worst result ever in the east-central German state.

Federal elections last year similarly resulted in a landmark performance by the AfD, which emerged as the largest opposition faction in the Bundestag, the German federal parliament in Berlin. The party came second with 21 percent of the vote, securing its highest-ever showing.

In state elections in Baden-Wurttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate earlier this year too, the AfD more than doubled its seats — though it still finished third. In 2024, the AfD emerged victorious in the Thuringia state election and second in the Brandenburg state election — both were firsts for the party.

The AfD’s electoral gains in Saxony-Anhalt mirror growing dissatisfaction among voters — especially in the former East Germany — about the stagnant economy, high unemployment and domestic security, which the party largely pins on immigration.

What challenges lie ahead for AfD?

Since its formation in 2013, the AfD has been embroiled in various scandals and has faced major controversies, including alleged foreign espionage links, secret deportation plans and internal nepotism.

The party went from a fringe Eurosceptic group to the country’s most powerful opposition force in little more than a decade, becoming too extreme even for the European Parliament’s far-right Identity & Democracy group. It kicked the party out in May 2024 after lead AfD candidate Maximilian Krah stated that not everyone in the SS – Adolf Hitler’s infamous Nazi paramilitary organisation – was a criminal.

Krah has also been under investigation by German prosecutors for alleged illegal payments, bribery and money laundering linked to China and Russia. The German parliament last year decided to lift the far-right legislator’s immunity to help investigators.

AfD politicians have also come under fire for employing family members, including in Saxony-Anhalt, where several parliamentarians are reported to have employed relatives.

Bundestag President, Julia Klockner, banned seven AfD employees from entering the German parliament over security concerns, after they failed internal background reliability checks due to their ties to right-wing extremist networks and past criminal convictions.

Senior AfD figures also faced a backlash for attending a secretive meeting to discuss mass deportation plans for people with a migration background.

What are the AfD’s prospects for the national election in 2029?

Pollsters are unanimous in forecasting the AfD as the largest party in Germany in the next national election in 2029, with around 28 percent of the vote.

That would mark a major transformation in the German political landscape from 2025, when the CDU and its ally the Christian Social Union together won 28.5 percent of the vote.

Yet even that outcome would not necessarily give AfD the ability to govern. If other parties maintain a “firewall” policy, that could prevent the far-right party from forming a coalition government.

Still, the Saxony-Anhalt election has been received by some politicians as a call for change. “Politics begins with considering reality,” Cem Ozdemir, head of government in the southwestern state of Baden-Wurttemberg and a member of the Green Party, wrote on X.

“That means the AfD is the election winner in Saxony-Anhalt. And that must mean for all democratic forces that nothing can remain as it is, and we must fundamentally reconsider our politics and our political style.”

Rob Reiner has won a posthumous Emmy for his appearance in Season 4 of “The Bear.”

On Sunday, the Television Academy hosted the second night of Emmy ceremonies, where guest actor awards were among those announced. Reiner, who died in December, won for guest actor in a comedy series for his appearance as Albert Schnurr, a consultant who mentored line cook Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson), on the FX show’s fourth season. It was his third Emmy Award, having previously won twice for supporting actor in a comedy for “All in the Family.”

While Reiner largely focused on directing, writing and producing in the latter part of his career, he would occasionally make appearances on TV shows and in films. He was most recently seen in an episode of Larry David’s HBO series “Larry David in Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: an Almost History of America,” which aired in July. In the final season of “The Bear,” which premiered at the end of June, the show nodded to Reiner, referencing a line from his 1987 film “Princess Bride.”

Guest actress in a comedy series was awarded to Betty Gilpin for “Widow’s Bay.” In the Apple TV horror-comedy series, she plays Sarah Westcott Warren, wife of the founder of the town at the center of the show.

On the drama series side, Ernest Harden Jr. won for guest actor in a drama series for “The Pitt,” while Shailene Woodley won for guest actress in Season 2 of “Paradise.” It is the first Emmy Award for both actors.

In HBO’s medical drama, Harden played Louie, an alcoholic who was a regular visitor at the Pitt, befriending many of the doctors and nurses on staff. However, tragedy strikes after a medical emergency, leaving the staff to mourn him during the Fourth of July shift. Meanwhile, in Hulu’s postapocalyptic series, Woodley played Annie, a former tour guide at Graceland and survivor of the Day. Her storyline dovetails with Xavier, played by series lead Sterling K. Brown, and the pair share an intense and emotional moment.

Also announced were supporting actor and actress in a limited series, which went to David Harbour and Linda Cardellini, who both won their first Emmys, for “DTF St. Louis.” In the series, they play a husband and wife whose marriage is struggling, and they become enmeshed with a local TV weatherman, played by Jason Bateman, who was also nominated in the category.

The first pair of Emmy ceremonies, formerly called the Creative Arts Emmys, were held over two nights two weekends before the Primetime Emmy Awards and honored many of the behind-the-scenes workers and craftspeople in television. An abridged version of the ceremonies will be broadcast Sept. 12 on FXX and stream on Hulu the following day. The Primetime Emmy Awards will be held Sept. 14 in Los Angeles with Mariska Hargitay as host.

The winners from Sunday’s ceremony:

Television Movie
“Remarkably Bright Creatures”

Supporting actor in a limited or anthology series or movie
David Harbour, “DTF St. Louis”

Supporting actress in a limited or anthology series or movie
Linda Cardellini, “DTF St. Louis”

Guest actor in a comedy series
Rob Reiner, “The Bear”

Guest actress in a comedy series
Betty Gilpin, “Widow’s Bay”

Guest actor in a drama series
Ernest Harden Jr., “The Pitt”

Guest actress in a drama series
Shailene Woodley, “Paradise”

The complete list of winners for Sunday’s ceremony can be found at televisionacademy.com.