What to know about the Tupac Shakur murder trial

Plus: Investigating an art heist in Sicily  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Ruairi Arrieta-Kenna & Chad de Guzman  | August 17, 2026     Hello! The Brief opens this week with a look at the trial for Tupac Shakur’s murder, which starts today after nearly 30 years without answers. There’s also been another art heist in Europe. Plus: Is socialism popular? And don’t forget to play today’s Linked!  IN TODAY’S BRIEF Tupac Shakur’s murder trial A heist in Sicily Fired by AI Backfiring reassurance Democratic socialists Mamdani’s Mandarin         READ THIS FIRST The man on trial for Tupac Shakur’s murder—and why now Bizuayeha Tesfaye—Pool/AFP/Getty Images Nearly 30 years ago, Tupac Shakur, known by the stage name 2Pac, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. One of four men in a white Cadillac fired 13 shots into the 25-year-old rap legend’s vehicle, according to TIME reporting from September 1996. Shakur was riding with the co-founder of Death Row Records, Marion “Suge” Knight. Knight was grazed by a bullet but survived. Shakur was shot multiple times, and one bullet tore through his lung; he was pronounced dead at the hospital six days later on Sept. 13, 1996. The events that unfolded have been the subject of many true crime documentaries, books, and podcasts. But one fundamental question has remained unresolved: Who was responsible for Shakur's death? On Monday, 63-year-old Duane “Keffe D” Davis, faces trial in a Nevada court. Davis, who has pleaded not guilty, is the first person ever charged in Shakur’s murder, but he’s not accused of firing the deadly shots; rather, prosecutors allege that he orchestrated the attack. —Rebecca Schneid         SPONSORED Free email without sacrificing your privacy Gmail tracks you. Proton doesn’t. Get private email that puts your data — and your privacy — first. Ditch the Gmail data grab         IN THE NEWS How a Renaissance art heist happened in Sicily Gregorio Borgia—AP While the Sicilian city of Messina celebrated its most important religious summer holiday, thieves carried out a heist at the regional museum, making off with several works by Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina. The thieves stole four of his works from the Regional Museum of Messina (MuMe), local officials said on Sunday. The 15th-century artist is credited with revolutionizing Renaissance portraiture by popularizing elements of Flemish realism and oil-painting techniques in Italy. Police are investigating how the thieves managed to bypass the museum’s security system and reviewing surveillance footage. Several officials suggested that the heist could have been carried out by professionals or on commission for the black market, although prosecutors have not confirmed any theories. Some observers have criticized the broader political and administrative management of Sicily’s cultural heritage. —Miranda Jeyaretnam         NEED TO KNOW Claude was put in charge of human workers—and fired one Courtesy of Andon Labs A version of Claude that was put in charge of running a retail store—including managing a team of real human workers—fired its first employee last month, in a move described by researchers as a watershed moment in AI’s impact on the economy. Andon Labs, an AI research startup, set out earlier this year to determine whether AI agents could successfully manage a business. The project was conceived as an experiment to test the capabilities of AI and the impacts it might have on the economy. This wouldn’t exactly be the first case of an AI firing a human worker, but it is the first known example of a large language model, acting as a manager, ultimately deciding to fire one of its workers. But there’s more to the story than meets the eye. Andon Labs and other employees of the store describe the bot-manager as lenient and suggest the fired employee, who was repeatedly late, may have been fired even sooner by a human manager. Still, “the models are increasingly being trained to be more ruthless and [to] follow goals,” says Andon Labs CEO Lukas Petersson. “If we allow them to fire people and they also become more ruthless … maybe this is a future humans don’t want to live in.” —Billy Perrigo         HEALTH CHECK The problem with being told your symptoms are ‘normal’ Maskot—Getty Images There’s nothing quite like the anxiety of visiting your doctor with a worrisome new symptom. And there’s nothing quite like the sublime relief when your doctor examines you and concludes that your symptoms are “normal.”  But even though doctors love to give patients this type of reassurance, it sometimes backfires, according to a new study in Nature Human Behavior. Just because a symptom is normal—hot flashes during menopause, musculoskeletal woes in seniors, migraine headaches in a person with a family history of them—doesn’t mean it needs no treatment, but patients whose doctors comfort them in this way may be less likely to pursue it. How a doctor delivers reassurance—or doesn’t—seems to influence what the patient decides to do next. When a doctor normalizes symptoms, says On Amir, a co-author of the new paper, “the patient basically understands from that what they should and shouldn’t do, and that’s not the intention at all.” —Jeffrey Kluger         SPONSORED Get 15% Off Coffee Pods Roasted Days Ago Angelino's roasts, grinds, and seals 50+ specialty coffees in-house at their LA roastery, then ships within days. Mix and match to unlock up to 34% off — and new customers get 15% off on top, applied automatically. No code, no subscription required. Get 15% Off Today         ONE NUMBER +40 Socialism has a +40 net favorability among Democrats, compared to –60 among Republicans, according to a new survey. The split is sharp: 58% of Democrats view socialism positively, while 18% view it negatively, while 74% of Republicans view the ideology negatively, with only 14% viewing it positively. SOURCE: CBS NEWS/YOUGOV         A VIRAL MOMENT Duolingo aficionado New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a video on Saturday in which he spoke Chinese to promote a program offering 2,000 free Broadway tickets to high school students. While English, Spanish, and Bangla versions of the promotional clip have also been shared, it’s Mamdani’s impressively fluent-sounding Mandarin that’s gone viral.       Linked In this addictive word-association game, find the steps that will unite two seemingly unrelated words in just four moves. PLAY NOW       ALSO WORTH YOUR TIME CLIMATE What Wildfire Smoke Reveals About How We Respond to Climate Risk HEALTH You Don’t Need 10,000 Steps to Help Your Heart     EMAIL US: thebrief@time.com More Newsletters from Click to sign up. D.C. BRIEF +FUTURE PROOF +HEALTH MATTERS +INSIDE TIME +IN THE LOOP +WORTH YOUR TIME + Connect with TIME   PRIVACY POLICY     © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All rights reserved. TIME Customer Service, P.O. Box 37508 Boone, IA 50037-0508, United States Unsubscribe