Trump's media ban backfires on camera

Plus: Can 'pink noise' help you sleep?  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Richard Hall | September 22, 2026     Hello there. President Donald Trump is known for his fondness for television cameras. But he was left on mute yesterday when major news networks refused to broadcast from the White House in response to his ban on three news outlets from the building. The incident prompted a bizarre scene, which you can watch below. We’re also previewing a potential thaw in relations at the United Nations General Assembly between the U.S. and Iran, and bringing news of research into “pink noise” and its benefits for sleep. IN TODAY’S BRIEF Russia’s ’sham’ election News outlets sue Trump ICE shooting investigated How pink noise can help you sleep Can the U.N. cool the U.S.-Iran standoff? $1 trillion Trump’s moment of silence         READ THIS FIRST What Russia’s parliamentary election results mean for Putin and the war Vyacheslav Prokofyev—Pool/AFP/Getty Images Russia's electoral commission on Monday said that United Russia, the ruling party aligned with President Vladimir Putin, is projected to win the parliamentary election that has been widely criticized as a “sham.” While the final counts are not expected to be certified until later this week, preliminary figures show that the pro-Kremlin party is projected to win a record 355 seats in the country’s 450-seat Duma, the lower house of parliament, giving United Russia an even larger supermajority than its 2016 record high of 343 seats. The election is the first parliamentary poll since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the Kremlin has cast it as a referendum on support for what it calls a “special military operation” rather than a war. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told members of the press Monday that the election showed how Russians support the country’s leader and “point to the highest level of consolidation within Russian society around the head of state.” Experts believe that the election will allow the Kremlin to continue justifying its war with Ukraine—and it could further consolidate Putin’s power. “This playing field was tilted before the votes were even counted, and this was not by any means a free and fair election,” David Szakonyi, a professor at George Washington University whose research focuses on Putin-era Russia, tells TIME. “I would be very careful to kind of unpack the distribution of votes as something indicative of what people think of the war,” he said. “They were not given the choice to vote against it.” —Rebecca Schneid         SPONSORED 2 minutes. Your URL. A customer profile worth using. Most founders can describe their product. They can't describe their customer. Not in a way that actually changes how they sell. HubSpot for Startups built a free tool to fix that. Paste in your URL, answer a few quick questions, and it generates a structured profile of your best-fit customer. Firmographics, buying triggers, the works. Takes 2 minutes. No spreadsheet required. Build Your Free ICP.         HAPPENING NOW CNN, MS NOW, and Politico sue Trump Administration over White House ban Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) CNN, MS NOW, and Politico sued the Trump Administration on Monday following President Donald Trump's decision to ban the three media outlets from the White House. "This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the companies said in a joint statement. Trump took to Truth Social shortly afterwards and insisted the White House "is not instituting an assault on the free press" but is instead targeting "fake news".  The White House later doubled down on its stance, issuing a press release titled "White House access is a privilege—not a right," during which they argued "the First Amendment protects their right to publish; it does not entitle them to a hard pass, briefing room seat, or place in the press pool." CNN, MS NOW, and Politico said their reporters were denied access to the White House over the weekend and had their badges seized following Trump's ban issued Friday. —Olivia-Anne Cleary and Callum Sutherland         IN THE NEWS ICE shooting of immigrant in Texas under investigation Austin American-Statesman/Hearst Newspapers/Getty Images The Department of Homeland Security’s investigative arm is leading a probe into a federal agent’s shooting of an immigrant from Venezuela in Austin, Texas, on Sunday afternoon. Protesters immediately gathered at the scene to denounce the latest instance of violence involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, with videos on social media showing them paralyzing traffic.  Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said that preliminary information pointed to a “small foot pursuit” happening before the shooting. Authorities then added that the man was transferred to the Dell Seton Medical Center in stable condition.  Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, an Austin immigration lawyer who said she had been hired to represent the man who was shot and his wife, identified him as a 28-year-old Venezuelan named Wilber Rafael Garces Perez.  The Texas Tribune reported, citing Lincoln-Goldfinch, that Perez had a work permit and had entered the U.S. legally. According to Lincoln-Goldfinch, Perez was delivering for DoorDash when the shooting occurred. —Chad de Guzman         HEALTH CHECK Can ‘pink noise’ help you sleep better? Getty Images When you’re asleep, your brain is still keeping tabs on the world outside. Sounds and even smells have been shown to alter brain activity during sleep.  “Evolutionarily, it makes sense,” says Hong-Viet Ngo-Dehning, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Essex in the U.K. “There might be some danger, and we need to respond.” But some sounds might actually nudge us deeper into sleep. In a recent paper in Science Translational Medicine, researchers report that when they played a type of sound called “pink noise” to people sleeping in an fMRI machine, they could see the fluid surrounding the brain pulsing in response. That might indicate that such noises could provoke changes in the quality of sleep.  What the researchers saw confirmed what others have found: Pink noise amplified slow waves during sleep, potentially making sleep deeper. “It's less harsh-sounding than static white noise that people might be familiar with,” says Laura Lewis, a neuroscientist at MIT and an author of the new study. —Veronique Greenwood         SPONSORED Watch the full system run live on Sep 30. Walk away ready to do it yourself. Most founders have LinkedIn traction with nothing to show for it in the CRM. On Sep 30, Maria Gharib (Mindstream) and Valerie Chapman (Ruth AI) walk through the exact system live. From AI-assisted content creation to sequenced outreach to booked meeting. You'll leave with a process you can run the same day. Eligible startups also get the LinkedIn-to-Leads Toolkit: ad credits, Apollo, Captions, and HubSpot's Prospecting Agent. Get my spot         IN FOCUS Can the U.N. General Assembly cool tensions between Iran and the U.S.? Spencer Platt—Getty Images Delegations from the U.S. and Iran are traveling to New York for the world’s largest diplomatic gathering this week in what experts say could be a key moment for determining the direction of the Iran war nearly seven months in. Tensions between the warring countries are mounting ahead of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), with Iranian leaders and President Donald Trump exchanging a fresh round of threats. Trump on Sunday weighed whether he should “blow the entire nation up” in an interview with Fox News, warning that Iran “better behave” and saying that “very big things” would happen in the war, without offering more detail. According to the outlet, Trump described his options as “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically, or making a deal.” The threats come after active hostilities in the conflict resumed in the last month when the U.S. and Iran traded fresh strikes amid tensions over the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway in the global oil market. Meaningful negotiations between the two countries have meanwhile been stalled for weeks following the breakdown of a memorandum of understanding leaders signed in June.  But experts tell TIME that the U.N. General Assembly gathering, where delegations from Iran, the U.S., and key Gulf states will be in attendance, could offer a critical chance to deescalate the situation and attempt to revive peace efforts—although making progress in negotiations could be an uphill battle. “This week in New York, there is an opportunity, especially for the mediating countries, to try to prevent tensions from once again spiraling, and potentially this time spiraling out of control,” says Ali Vaez, the deputy program director for the Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group. “It's the last best opportunity to try to prevent an escalation either in October or in November.” Top officials from the U.S. and Iran will be present at the U.N. meeting this week, including Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will be in attendance as part of a slimmed-down delegation from the country. Both Trump and Pezeshkian are set to deliver addresses to the assembly. —Connor Greene         ONE NUMBER $1 trillion Advanced Micro Devices, a chipmaker viewed as the closest rival to AI behemoth Nvidia, briefly passed $1 trillion ‌in market capitalization for the first time on Monday. The Santa Clara, California-based company is only the fourth U.S. chipmaker to top the landmark valuation. SOURCE: REUTERS         A VIRAL MOMENT A moment of silence Major TV networks declined to replace the CNN White House pool crew on Monday to stand in solidarity with the network after it was banned from the White House by Trump. As a result, the president spoke to cameras without any sound.         SPONSORED The brief 330K+ marketers actually read TLDR Marketing is the free daily brief that 330K+ growth marketers, performance marketers, and CMOs actually read. The most interesting stories in marketing, curated and summarized in 5 minutes. Subscribe for free       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 IDEAS Why K-Pop Took Off When C-Pop Didn’t WORLD  German Far-Right Expands Gains in ‘Disaster’ State Elections for Chancellor Merz       More Newsletters from Click to sign up. D.C. BRIEF +FUTURE PROOF +HEALTH MATTERS +INSIDE TIME +IN THE LOOP +WORTH YOUR TIME + Subscribe to TIME Email us: thebrief@time.com Received this from a friend? Sign up here Connect with TIME   PRIVACY POLICY     © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All rights reserved. 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