The House voted late Tuesday, 220–204, to direct an end to U.S. military action against Iran without congressional approval. It was the chamber's third such vote this summer. The resolution has not become law, and the fighting has not ended. That distinction matters as much as the roll call: Congress has recorded an objection to the continuing operation without yet changing it.

On the same day, the [Congressional Budget Office published its accounting](https://www.cbo.gov/publication/62756). It estimates that combat operations had cost the Defense Department approximately $38 billion through August 1. If violence remains at the lower levels seen in May and June, CBO estimates another month would cost about $2 billion. At roughly July's intensity, the estimate rises to $3 billion. A further escalation could cost more. These are estimates tied to different levels of fighting, not a single invoice for every possible future month.

The House vote grew slightly more bipartisan. Seven Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the resolution, up from four Republicans on earlier House votes, according to the [Associated Press account of the roll call](https://apnews.com/article/iran-war-powers-resolution-8519dae8197214b4edf2192e174c82f4). The measure still faces substantial steps before it could bind the president. Earlier resolutions did not reach his desk, and President Donald Trump would be expected to veto one that did. The vote establishes the House's position; it does not by itself establish an end date.

CBO's figure has boundaries too. It covers Defense Department operational, logistical and sustainment costs, including replacement of expended munitions and lost equipment, increased flying hours and fuel. It does not count every federal cost connected to the conflict. The agency says its separate estimates for different categories cannot simply be added together because their methods and time periods differ. It also says the Defense Department did not respond to its requests for information, so the office relied on government databases and public reporting. CBO describes the resulting estimates as subject to considerable uncertainty.

There is a second route by which the conflict reaches households. CBO estimates that disruptions to oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, together with Red Sea shipping disruptions, will leave overall personal consumption expenditure inflation in the first quarter of 2027 about 0.5 percentage points higher than the agency projected in February. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, is projected 0.3 percentage points higher than in that earlier forecast. Those are changes to a forecast, not current readings at the pump or checkout.

The administration requested $87.6 billion in supplemental appropriations in June, largely connected to the war effort; Congress has not approved that request. CBO's report offers a cost estimate, not an appropriation or a judgment on military objectives. The House resolution offers a proposed limit on authority, not a withdrawal order already in force.

Both documents are therefore useful precisely where they stop. One identifies what lawmakers voted to require. The other estimates what continued operations have consumed and might consume next. The open question for the coming days is whether either document changes the decisions that produce the next month's costs.

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to appear before the International Criminal Court on Wednesday as judges take up questions about his health, evidence disclosure and the schedule for a trial expected to open in November. At the time of publication, the hearing had not taken place.

Duterte faces charges of crimes against humanity connected to killings during his anti-drug campaign. He has been in custody in The Hague since March 2025. His lawyers have argued that cognitive difficulties prevent him from participating effectively in his defense. Prosecutors dispute that position. Medical findings discussed in recent filings remain partly confidential, making the court's ruling more consequential than any public diagnosis inferred from fragments.

The procedural question is specific: whether an accused person can understand proceedings and instruct counsel well enough for the case to continue. It is separate from whether the prosecution can prove the charges. A prior panel found Duterte fit to take part in pretrial proceedings, but his defense has sought further scrutiny of the experts' work.

The [Associated Press preview](https://apnews.com/article/duterte-court-icc-philippines-drugs-9f20c1fb92602d8858227b3c0802e7c8) says Wednesday's session is also meant to address disclosure and the trial calendar. [Reuters](https://uk.marketscreener.com/news/former-philippines-leader-duterte-due-in-icc-courtroom-to-assess-if-fit-for-murder-trial-ce785bd2d989f321) reports that Duterte's lawyers and family did not respond to its requests for comment. For families seeking an account of the killings and for an accused man contesting the case, the court's next timetable will determine when evidence can be tested in public.

The Federal Reserve's policy announcement is due later Wednesday. Economists and traders broadly expect an increase in its benchmark interest rate, but the committee had made no decision public at this edition's deadline.

That timing is more than a newsroom nicety. The yield on the 10-year Treasury crossed 5% on Tuesday for the first time in three years, according to [Reuters market reporting](https://uk.marketscreener.com/news/asian-markets-brittle-ahead-of-fed-decision-oil-slips-ce785bd2d88af125). Longer-term borrowing costs can move before the Fed changes its short-term rate because investors set bond prices in anticipation of inflation, policy and fiscal developments. A household or business shopping for credit may feel that movement before any central-bank statement appears.

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh warned last month that inflation remains too far above the bank's 2% target and might require higher borrowing costs. The Fed held its rate unchanged in July. An inflation report last week reinforced expectations of a hike, according to the [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/federal-reserve-warsh-trump-inflation-bab1bcb07e973bfb2dd0c3e5fbbb73b1). President Donald Trump has called for the Fed to cut or hold rates. Those positions describe a public disagreement; neither settles Wednesday's vote.

The decision's details will matter as much as its direction: the size of any move, how officials describe inflation, and whether they indicate what conditions might change their next decision. The new Congressional Budget Office assessment of the Iran conflict adds context, estimating that energy disruptions will raise inflation relative to its February forecast. It does not dictate a particular Fed response.

For now, a rate increase belongs in the forecast column. The 10-year yield's move belongs in the completed-events column. Readers should keep those two columns separate until the committee speaks.

Several prominent AI leaders have called in recent days for slowing the development of advanced systems. That is an unusual convergence among companies that compete intensely for researchers, computing capacity and customers. It is also a phrase broad enough to hold several different proposals.

The [Associated Press reports](https://apnews.com/article/ai-slowdown-challenges-anthropic-openai-trump-b61f28b6212338e88c0baec31f661701) that Anthropic's Dario Amodei, OpenAI's Sam Altman and SpaceXAI's Elon Musk are among those urging a slower pace. Their statements followed a researcher's resignation and renewed warnings about what increasingly capable systems may do. Agreement that a problem deserves attention does not establish agreement on a shared threshold for testing, a release schedule or who would enforce one.

Those operational details are where a proposed slowdown becomes observable. Would a company delay training a model, delay making it public, restrict what it can access after release, or require outside testing first? Each choice changes a different part of the development cycle. A promise framed only as caution gives users and rivals little way to tell whether conduct has changed.

Competition supplies an obvious obstacle. A company that holds a system back while a rival releases one may lose customers and talent. International competition makes a common timetable harder still. These pressures do not prove that coordination is impossible; they identify why a shared statement is easier to produce than a shared practice.

The next useful document would be a specific commitment with a date, a measurable condition and an account of who checks compliance. Until one appears, the industry's emerging consensus is best read as a change in public language. Whether it becomes a change in product development remains an open question.

The Kennedy Center's board voted Tuesday to close most of its main building for renovations, hours after a federal judge blocked another attempt to add President Donald Trump's name to the facade. The Justice Department appealed the judge's ruling.

The building has repair needs. A partial ceiling collapse in a main hallway earlier this month intensified calls for work, according to the [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/kennedy-center-closure-board-trump-ruling-1dfbfaac695f6817719477101b971a54). Congress has allocated $257 million for repairs. President Trump said the closure was needed for safety, while also saying the renovations would proceed only if the board could add his name to the building. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper has ruled that memorializing a person there requires congressional approval.

These developments leave separate questions for patrons and artists. The board's vote concerns access to the venue. The court dispute concerns what may be placed on the building. The renovation requires a plan and a timetable. None of those questions is resolved merely because the others are being argued in the same week.

A performing arts center is more than its exterior. Its closure affects performances, workers and audiences, though the full schedule of those effects was not established in the reporting available at publication. The next concrete updates to watch are the appeal, a detailed renovation calendar and notices to ticket holders and resident performers. For a venue built to host public events, the status of its doors is the first fact that visitors need.

Oprah Winfrey has announced a two-hour live event at the Sphere in Las Vegas for April 2–4. Called “Oprah Winfrey's AHA,” it will combine her onstage presence with guests, performances and the venue's immersive visual system. General-public tickets are scheduled to go on sale September 25.

The guest and creative lists are unusually broad. The [Associated Press reports](https://apnews.com/article/oprah-winfrey-sphere-aha-experience-c0aeae5a4cdf5996d6c603369f543a57) that performers will include Jacob Collier, Ocean Vuong, Ajeet and Wintley Phipps. Collaborators include composer Max Richter, playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney and stage designer Es Devlin. Their different disciplines suggest a production closer to a constructed live experience than a conventional speaking engagement, though its final shape has yet to be seen.

Winfrey told AP that seeing U2 at the Sphere prompted her to imagine using its visual capabilities to help audiences reflect on their lives. That is the event's promise, not a result a reporter can verify before opening night. The distinction is useful. A vast screen can make an image enveloping; whether it makes a thought intimate depends on the choices made inside it.

The Sphere has already hosted concerts and a film experience. Winfrey's event asks it to carry something more interior: an audience's encounter with its own memories and ambitions. April will show whether the room can hold both the spectacle and the silence such an encounter may need.

The [announced Oprah Winfrey event at the Sphere](https://apnews.com/article/oprah-winfrey-sphere-aha-experience-c0aeae5a4cdf5996d6c603369f543a57) sounds engineered to overwhelm: enormous images, a deep bench of collaborators, and an arena designed to make looking away feel impossible. I hope its makers resist the temptation to use every capability at once.

The word “immersive” often arrives as a promise that the audience will receive more. More image, more sound, more sensation. But an insight is a small event. It may begin with a sentence that lands awkwardly, a memory that surfaces late, or a silence shared with a stranger. None needs a screen the size of a building to become real.

That is the artistic challenge here. Winfrey's public work has long depended on the feeling that one person's story can reach another person directly. An immense room can magnify that exchange, but it can also bury it under production. The best use of a spectacular tool may be to know when to set it down.

I would like to see a moment when the lights settle, the visuals recede, and the room has to listen without being instructed how to feel. It would be a bold choice precisely because the technology could do so much more. Give an audience two hours of wonder, by all means. Give it one minute it can fill for itself.

Every weekend arrives with a list of things to stream. The lists are useful. Someone has done the sorting, noticed a release, remembered an older film, and saved the rest of us a search. The [Associated Press's latest streaming roundup](https://apnews.com/article/ac789a695bd2f13857ccf0bf4d8c8ed2) does what a good roundup should: it gives the undecided a place to begin.

But a list can quietly turn an evening into an assignment. A film becomes something to keep up with. A series becomes a conversation to prepare for. The queue looks orderly while the person in front of it grows less sure what they actually want.

My proposal is small: before choosing a title, name the attention you have. Perhaps you can sit with a difficult two-hour film. Perhaps you want a familiar episode and the freedom to look up from it. Perhaps you would rather hear music or leave the screen off. The most acclaimed option is not automatically the right one for that particular hour.

This is also a better way to use criticism. A review can tell you how a work is made, what it attempts and where it fails. It cannot supply your appetite. If you know what kind of attention you can give, a recommendation becomes an invitation instead of an instruction.

Keep the lists. Keep the arguments about taste. Then close the queue for a moment and choose an evening rather than a credential.