Strawweights Carol Foro and Shanelle Dyer kicked things off with a fight that brought Dana White into the Octagon to congratulate both athletes, with Foro coming away with the victory. From there, the finishes just started rolling, as Samuel Sanches stopped Chasen Blair and Freddy Vidal snatched a submission in the final minute of his fight with Felipe Franco before Lerryan Douglas detonated a left hook on the chin of Cam Teague. And then, to close out the night, Steven Asplund needed just 16 seconds to dispatch Anthony Guarascio to close out the evening.

After brief deliberations, White emerged to announce the new additions to the UFC roster, awarding contracts to both Foro and Dyer, Sanches, Douglas, and Asplund while also announcing that Vidal would get another opportunity to compete on the final episode of the season.

A federal judge late Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s unprecedented effort to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

“President Trump has not identified anything related to Cook’s conduct or job performance as a Board member that would indicate that she is harming the Board or the public interest by executing her duties unfaithfully or ineffectively,” Judge Jia Cobb, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, wrote, as she granted Cook’s request to stop the attempted firing.

The decision comes just weeks month after Trump said he fired Cook — the first Fed governor ever to be fired by the president. The administration is expected to appeal Cobb’s preliminary injunction, which ensures the Federal Reserve must keep Cook on as a governor while the legal challenge plays out.

Cobb said on first look Cook’s claim that she was improperly fired is a valid one and that it violated her rights under the Fifth Amendment. At the same time, the judge, who sits on the federal bench in DC, said she believed the issue brings up new legal questions that need to be addressed over the long term.

“President Trump’s actions and Cook’s resulting legal challenge raise many serious questions of first impression that the Court believes will benefit from further briefing on a non-emergency timeline,” Cobb wrote. “However, at this preliminary stage, the Court finds that Cook has made a strong showing that her purported removal was done in violation of the Federal Reserve Act’s ‘for cause’ provision.”

Trump has attempted to fire Cook for cause, citing allegations of mortgage fraud, which the Justice Department is now investigating. But Cobb said Tuesday that the ability to fire people “for cause” is not absolute and limited to actions taken in office.

“The Court finds that permissible cause for removal of a Federal Reserve Governor extends only to concerns about the Board member’s ability to effectively and faithfully execute their statutory duties, in light of events that have occurred while they are in office,” the judge wrote.

Cook says that Trump’s use of “cause” is an attempt to get around a Supreme Court decision from earlier this year that appeared to limit the president’s ability to remove Federal Reserve governors.

Trump, Cook argued in court papers, wants to redefine the meaning of “cause” in a way that would allow him to fire any board member “with whom he disagrees about policy based on chalked up allegations.”

“President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally redefine ‘cause’ – completely unmoored to caselaw, history, and tradition – and conclude, without evidence, that he has found it,” Cook’s attorneys wrote.

In her ruling, the judge at one point said the Trump administration’s argument would lead to an “absurd result.”

“While admitting that the President cannot remove an official for policy disagreements, the Government claims … a removal on the grounds of a policy disagreement would nevertheless be unreviewable,” Cobb wrote.

“This cannot be the case,” she added. “Such a rule would provide no practical insulation for the members of the Board of Governors. It would mean that the President could, in practice, ‘remove a member … merely because he wanted his own appointees on the’ Board of Governors.”

Following the ruling, a lawyer for Cook said she would continue to carry out her duties as a Federal Reserve governor.

“This ruling recognizes and reaffirms the importance of safeguarding the independence of the Federal Reserve from illegal political interference,” attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement Tuesday night. “Allowing the President to unlawfully remove Governor Cook on unsubstantiated and vague allegations would endanger the stability of our financial system and undermine the rule of law.”

The move to fire Cook was a significant escalation of the president’s battle against the Fed, which has generally been shielded from political influence for decades. Trump has blamed the Fed for taking too long to lower interest rates.

For months, Trump has unleashed an intense pressure campaign against the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, arguing that his tariff policy will not push up inflation. But central bankers want to see how Trump’s trade war and other sweeping policy changes affect the US economy before resuming interest rate cuts.

During the spring, Trump frequently threatened to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell. But the president eventually backed off after his advisers privately warned that doing so would likely spark extreme volatility in financial markets.

The Fed is in the throes of a full-scale assault by the Trump administration. In addition to a barrage of attacks, Trump and his allies have blasted the Fed for its management of a $2.5 billion renovation of its headquarters in Washington, DC, which has grown more costly over the years. Some of Trump’s allies saw it as a potential opening to oust Powell.

Now, instead of trying to fire Powell, whose term ends in May 2026, the Trump administration is trying to reshape the Fed by cementing a majority on its Board of Governors. If Cook, a Biden appointee, is successfully removed, it would leave only two Fed governors appointed by a Democratic president on the seven-member board.

“We’ll have a majority very shortly,” Trump said during a recent Cabinet meeting. “So, that’ll be great. Once we have a majority, housing is going to swing, and it’s going to be great.”

Fed policymakers are set to convene for their two-day policy meeting starting on September 16, in which they are widely expected to deliver the first interest rate cut since December, according to Wall Street’s predictions.

This story has been updated with additional details.

This United States’ international window once looked like it could be disastrous. Now, it has been upgraded to strangely uneven.

A much-improved US got goals from Alejandro Zendejas and Folarin Balogun to beat a heavily rotated Japan side 2-0 at Lower.com Field in Columbus. The result lends some credence to Mauricio Pochettino’s insistence that the US’s recent subpar results were all part of a plan with a single target: arriving at the World Cup in peak form.

The US head coach had been in a defiant mood almost from the moment the final whistle blew on his side’s 2-0 loss to South Korea on Saturday – a game in which the US started reasonably well, but were continually undone by miscommunication at the back and a lack of clinical finishing up top. Pochettino turned heads when he told reporters afterward that he felt the US had been the better team overall – a view he doubled down on after arriving in Columbus, but with an additional edge.

“We need to understand that we need to have quite a roster and players that we need to know and give the possibility to play,” he said. “At the World Cup, it’s not a moment to make tests or to give the possibility to get experience. That is why you cannot be surprised.”

Pochettino promised rotation and new ideas for evaluation, and that’s what he delivered: A 3-4-2-1 formation was deployed against Japan, with Chris Richards, Tim Ream and Tristan Blackmon making up the back three, 21-year-old Orlando starlet Alex Freeman at right wingback and the Columbus Crew’s Max Arfsten on the left. Cristian Roldan, who came as a late addition to the squad, started in central midfield alongside Tyler Adams, while Zendejas started alongside Christian Pulisic as dual No 10s behind Balogun at striker.

In each line, a new arrangement gave opportunities for players who are unlikely to be starters in next summer’s World Cup, but who most certainly could play a significant role. In defense, Blackmon made up for a rough international debut on Saturday with a solid display, showing that he could at least be an option for a thin US center-back group. Out wide, Arfsten took advantage of being put in his best position by attacking at will with fewer defensive responsibilities, firing in the cross that led to the United States’ opener. Roldan was his steady, professional self next to Adams. And in attack, Zendejas showed off the work rate and quality of technique that make him relatively rare among the US options at winger.

Of course, things were far from perfect. As he had against South Korea, Balogun failed to score early on, despite a series of point-blank chances within the first 20 minutes, with Japan goalkeeper Keisuke Osako doing well to make a couple saves amid that flurry. The US remained too passive on both sides of the ball, though not anywhere near as much as they were against the Koreans. And goalkeeper Matt Freese, while he kept a shutout and made some very nice saves, did not always look sure-handed or confident when dealing with crosses and set pieces. The starting goalkeeper for this team remains an open question.

It must also be noted that Japan were without most of their usual starters, having used their first team in Saturday’s scoreless draw against Mexico. Still, the players on the field displayed all the hallmarks of head coach Hajime Moriyasu’s approach, attempting to use pace and skill to unbalance the US. The quality on the ball to make those moves count may have been lacking at times, but the rethought US backline played its role as well.

The breakthrough came after half an hour, with Arfsten putting moves on Japan’s Henry Mochizuki, taking him down the left-wing before lofting in a well-paced ball that fell at just the right height for Zendejas. The Club América winger accepted the invitation with gusto, taking the ball right out of the air with a defender on his back and guiding it into the bottom corner of the far post.

Zendejas celebrated by running to Arfsten, pointing at the Columbus Crew player to highlight to the home fans that their player had created what may prove an important breakthrough as the World Cup approaches.

It was after around this point, 30 minutes in, against South Korea that a decent US performance unraveled. On Tuesday, though, the US did much better to keep up the pressure. The Americans sustained possession, refused to allow Japan out of their own half, and threatened to score even if the final product was not always there, or attempts were blocked by desperate defending. The Japanese helped the US as well – at one point, Pulisic was able to easily intercept a pass out of the back, but he was quickly swarmed and his effort was blocked out of bounds.

That action seemed to wake up Pulisic from what had been another quiet performance in a US shirt. In the 48th minute, the Milan star did well to combine with Arfsten and Zendejas to fire on goal again, but the shot was blocked at the near post. Six minutes later, he went direct, cutting through the Japanese backline to latch on to a ball held up by Balogun, with Osako saving once again in what was an excellent performance for the keeper.

In the end, Pochettino’s thesis may have best been proven by Jack McGlynn and Damion Downs, both of whom came on as substitutes and nearly added three outstanding goals: McGlynn from two trademark curling shots from outside the box (one saved, one off the bar), and Downs from a nice interchange through the middle that was saved by Osako. They were the type of chances that come from a team that, at long last, seemed comfortable with the task at hand, and capable of fulfilling it.

Whether that feeling will extend to the first team on the biggest stage of all next summer remains to be seen.