Trump Will Be Booked in Atlanta

When Donald Trump is booked this evening on 13 state felony charges at a notorious jail in Georgia, it will be striking to see how the former president is treated. Trump for the first time will be required to pay bail, and he is expected to sit for a mug shot.

Like many of his co-defendants in the sprawling racketeering case, who have eagerly smiled through their booking photos, the former president has struck a defiant tone: “I will proudly be arrested tomorrow afternoon in Georgia,” he wrote yesterday.

Before arriving in Atlanta, Trump shook up his legal team. Steve Sadow, a veteran criminal defense lawyer who has taken on a number of high-profile cases, filed a document in court stating that he is now Trump’s lead counsel. Often a dissatisfied client, Trump was said to have wanted a more “sophisticated” legal team, and he let go one of the lawyers who negotiated his $200,000 bond.

The former president also said in a court filing that he opposed an effort by Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, to bring the case to trial in October. Willis had sought an earlier start date after one of the defendants, Kenneth Chesebro, asked for a speedy trial.

U.S. officials say an onboard blast most likely killed Prigozhin

The Pentagon said for the first time that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the mercenary leader who staged a brief mutiny in June against Russia’s military leadership, was likely killed in a plane crash yesterday.

The leading theory among U.S. officials is that he was killed by an explosion onboard, possibly caused by a bomb.

There has still been no official confirmation that Prigozhin was killed. But when Vladimir Putin spoke about the crash publicly for the first time today, he referred to the mercenary leader in the past tense. “He made some serious mistakes in life, but he also achieved necessary results,” Putin said.

At the debate, a glimpse of Trumpism without Trump

For much of last night’s debate in Milwaukee, eight contenders for the Republican presidential nomination argued as if they existed in an alternative political universe where the race turned on issues and biography. That’s because the party’s most dominant figure skipped the event.

In Donald Trump’s absence, the political newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy stood out by channeling the spirit of the former president, soaking up screen time with insults and conservative-populist views.

Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis failed to prove that he was the sole alternative to Trump. Instead, my colleague Nate Cohn said, his debate performance can best be understood as a second-place strategy — positioning himself should Trump be convicted.

Netflix is letting customers keep their final DVDs

The DVD-by-mail service that Netflix first launched more than 25 years ago will ship its final red envelope next month. All one million or so remaining customers will effectively be given their final rentals — and current and new subscribers will be able to request up to 10 additional movies to be sent to them via mail.

Welcome to the first full school year of the A.I. era

Tens of millions of American schoolchildren are about to return to the classroom. One topic on the minds of many teachers and administrators: A.I. chatbots, which have an uncanny ability to write papers, solve math problems and occasionally display a disregard for the truth.

Last school year, many districts responded to the sudden rise of ChatGPT with broad bans. Now, some are trying to embrace the technology.

Our tech columnist Kevin Roose has some advice: Assume all students are going to use the bots no matter the rules, so consider how helpful A.I. could be as an educational tool.

The quest for a crocodile dictionary

If a wild crocodile loudly slaps his head down on the surface of the water as it approaches you, is it a friendly gesture or a warning of an attack? No one is fully certain, but researchers are hoping to soon produce a first-of-its-kind croc glossary with an answer to that question and to many more.

Scientists in Australia are cataloging all of the sounds they hear from crocodiles, who are among the most vocal of all reptiles. Besides nonverbal gestures, their 13 sounds include growls, bellows, coughs, hisses and roars.

Have a chatty evening.