A panel of New York appeals court judges said today that the roughly $520 million penalty imposed on President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth was excessive. The court eliminated the financial penalty while preserving the judgment that the president had committed fraud.
One of the judges, Peter Moulton, concluded that while Trump had done harm in inflating the value of his assets, “it was not the cataclysmic harm that can justify a nearly half-billion-dollar award to the state.” The other judges agreed to toss out the fine, but they were sharply divided on how the case should proceed. Ultimately, the court decided to let the fraud judgment stand so that further challenges to the case could be heard at the state’s highest court.
The ruling freed Trump and his family from an enormous financial burden that once threatened to wipe out all his cash and force a fire sale of some of his most prized businesses. Since he won back the presidency, his net worth has increased by billions of dollars thanks to his cryptocurrency ventures.
Trump celebrated the decision as “a great win for America.” Letitia James, the New York attorney general who brought the case, pledged to appeal.
In other Trump news:
The president said that he would join a patrol tonight on the streets of D.C.
After an infusion of cash from Trump’s signature bill, deportations have surged. These charts show where they have happened and who they have affected.
The Trump administration is preparing to lower the recruitment standards for F.B.I. agents.
Soon after Tiffany Trump’s engagement, deals began to flow in for her fiancé, a Times investigation found.
Texas and California raced to gerrymander their maps
In Texas, the most populous Republican-led state, a State Senate panel voted today to advance a new congressional map that was drawn in the hopes of flipping five U.S. House seats in favor of Republicans. The governor of Texas is expected to sign the new map into law within days.
In response, lawmakers in California, the most populous state led by Democrats, planned to vote this afternoon to advance a new map that could flip five seats in favor of Democrats. The changes must be approved by voters in November, so Gov. Gavin Newsom has launched a campaign to support the effort, raising $6.2 million over the last week.
For more: Partisan gerrymandering can be hard to prohibit. My colleagues explain why, using Massachusetts as an example.
The U.S. revealed the terms of its trade deal with Europe
The U.S. and the E.U. announced today the details of the trade agreement they struck last month in a handshake deal. Washington will impose a 15 percent tariff on most goods from the bloc, but European cars will still face a 27.5-percent import fee until the E.U. takes steps to lower its tariffs on American products.
Jeanna Smialek, our Brussels bureau chief, said that officials in Europe reacted with “a sense of muted relief.”
Our photographer returned to the place where he lost his legs
On Oct. 23, 2010, my colleague Joao Silva stepped on a land mine in Afghanistan and lost both of his legs. As a war photographer, he had been following U.S. troops in the village of Deh-e Kuchay when he felt the explosion ripple through his body and shot three frames before the pain forced him to drop his camera.
Nearly 15 years later, Joao returned to the village. “I was here in search of closure, but not the emotional kind,” he wrote. “I had unfinished journalistic business.” Here’s what he found.
More top news
New York City: Mayor Eric Adams’s former chief adviser was charged for a second time with corruption, and another adviser was suspended from his campaign after trying to give a journalist cash in a potato chip bag.
War: Russia and Ukraine appear nowhere near a peace deal, despite Trump’s high-profile meetings. Vice President JD Vance said he told the Ukrainian leader at the White House to “behave.”
Weather: Hurricane Erin, one of the largest on record, continued to threaten the East Coast with flooding and rip currents. A camera in space captured its immense size.
Court: Erik Menendez is appearing before a parole board, after spending more than three decades behind bars for the killing of his parents. His brother, Lyle, will get his chance tomorrow.
Demographics: The foreign-born population in the U.S. dropped by more than 1.5 million between January and June, the first decline in decades.
Apple: Workers said that Jay Blahnik, the company’s fitness chief, was verbally abusive, manipulative and inappropriate, and that he had retaliated when they cooperated with an investigation.
Britain: A failed hit woman from Wisconsin was sentenced to 30 years in prison for her role in the attempted assassination of a man in Birmingham, England.
Restaurants: Cracker Barrel has a new look. The trending modern farmhouse aesthetic has taken root there, replacing the restaurant chain’s familiar country kitsch.
TIME TO UNWIND
Romantasy is keeping the fiction market afloat
Fiction sales, overall, have stagnated. But romantasies, which blend romance with fantasy elements like magic, fairies and dragons, are flying off the shelves.
Interest has been fueled in part by young people who grew up reading online fanfiction about their favorite characters. The fanfiction novel “Alchemised,” for example, began as a story about a romance between the Harry Potter characters Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy (a subgenre known as “Dramione”). It’s poised to be one of the biggest sellers this fall.
Unreleased recordings from the Beatles are coming
More than a dozen unreleased Beatles demos are arriving this fall as part of the fourth volume of the band’s “Anthology Collection.” At the same time, Disney will also release a ninth episode to cap off the band’s 1995 eight-part documentary, which will show material from behind the scenes of the film’s creation.
Dinner table topics
60 feet of art: N.C. Wyeth’s colossal 1932 mural “Apotheosis of the Family” has re-emerged after years in storage.
Ditch the crowds: These small, luxurious ships cater to never-cruisers.
Borrow it: One Maine town is encouraging people to buy less stuff by offering almost everything at its library.
Overnight me a Birkin bag: Olivia Ferney, a 24-year-old travel agent, makes a living answering to the demands of the ultrawealthy.
WHAT TO DO TONIGHT
Cook: These chile egg salad sandwiches combine creamy yogurt with rich, jammy yolks.
Watch: “Ne Zha II” is a testament to the level of artistry in Chinese animation.
Read: The novelist Silvia Moreno-Garcia recommended eight haunted house books.
Pack: Here’s what you should bring to your vacation rental kitchen.
Consider: Sports psychologists offered tips for achieving goals through mental preparation.
Hunt: Which Bay Area home would you buy with a $600,000 budget?
Play: Here are today’s Spelling Bee, Wordle and Mini Crossword. Find all our games here.
ONE LAST THING
Meet the world’s biggest hockey player
There are zero hockey rinks in Moldova, in Eastern Europe. Yet a teenager named Alexander Karmanov has already caught the eyes of N.H.L. teams. Scouts are impressed by his skills, but it’s hard for anyone not to stop and stare when he skates by: Karmanov is 7 feet tall and 277 pounds, far and away the biggest hockey player on the planet.
He is so big that hockey equipment doesn’t exist in his size. When Karmanov’s team sent his measurements along to Under Armour, the billion-dollar sportswear company, it couldn’t find a template large enough. Instead, his jersey was custom-made from a goalie’s cut, with larger arms and a wider and longer body.
Have a grand evening.
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Matthew
Philip Pacheco was our photo editor.
We welcome your feedback. Write to us at evening@nytimes.com.