By DAVID RISING

BANGKOK (AP) — Soldiers in pristine and pressed uniforms marched in lockstep, their boots clacking a steady cadence on the pavement and their eyes following leader Xi Jinping as he drove by in review. Helicopters flew overhead, forming the numbers 8 and 0 in honor of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

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There was no shortage of pageantry at Wednesday’s military parade in Beijing, but beyond the spectacle, it also provided the first good look at China’s latest military hardware. New missiles, drones and other high-tech equipment have been added to its arsenal as part of a massive modernization program with the goal, according to the official parade announcers, of producing a force “with both nuclear and conventional capabilities able to deter wars in all battle spaces.”

Here are some of the highlights:

New nukes

China’s nuclear arsenal still lags far behind that of the United States and Russia, but it has been rapidly expanding. In its annual report to Congress on China, the U.S. Department of Defense estimated that Beijing now has more than 600 warheads and will have more than 1,000 by 2030.

The parade featured many of the missiles capable of delivering those warheads, from air, sea and land. China’s official Xinhua News Agency said it was the first time the military’s “triad of strategic nuclear forces was presented in a concentrated fashion,” calling it “China’s strategic trump card for safeguarding national sovereignty and defending national dignity.”

The display of the three systems together is noteworthy, said Meia Nouwens, senior fellow for Chinese security and defense policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

“All of that, of course, goes back to this key point about deterrence and the messaging that the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) and Xi Jinping are seeking to send to the U.S. and other partners and allies in the region and further afield,” she said.

Among the nuclear-capable missiles seen was the DF-61, a new intercontinental ballistic missile which can be fired from a mobile launching platform. Details on its capabilities are scant, but its predecessor has a range of more than 7,500 miles and can carry multiple warheads. It also debuted the newest variant of the silo-based DF-5, the DF-5C, whose range has been estimated at 20,000 kilometers.

Chinese helicopters fly in formation during a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Beijing, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar)

Also featured were the JL-1 air-launched long-range missile and the JL-3 sea-launched missile, both of which are also nuclear-capable.

More missiles

The parade saw the debut of other new missiles, including several designed to attack ships. These are likely of particular interest to the U.S., whose naval power is a key component of its Asia-Pacific defense strategy.

China claims the self-governing democracy of Taiwan as its own, and Xi has not ruled out taking the island by force. In the event of a Chinese invasion, if the U.S. were to come to Taiwan’s aid, China would need to hold off the U.S. Navy long enough to consolidate control of the island.

China has already built the world’s largest navy, though it is still well behind the U.S. in the number of aircraft carriers it has. It could use missiles, however, to try to keep American carriers out of effective range.

The parade showcased for the first time the YJ-15, YJ-17, YJ-19 and YJ-20 anti-ship missiles, all capable of operating at long ranges and hypersonic, making them difficult to intercept.

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, armament formations pass during the military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II held in front of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (Guo Yu/Xinhua via AP)

It also displayed missiles meant to intercept incoming anti-ship missiles, including the HQ-16C and HQ10A, and presented the aircraft-carrier version of the J-35 stealth multirole fighter for the first time.

“These are capabilities that are increasingly meant to signal to the United States they should think twice about entering into a conflict, if there ever is one, in support of Taiwan,” Nouwens said.

Drones from above, drones from below

Seven types of reconnaissance and attack aerial drones were on display that were not immediately identified by official commentators, but some of which appeared to be new.

A small surface drone ship was also on display but not identified, as well as carrier-based uncrewed helicopters.

China also showed off two submarine drones, the older-model HSU001 and debuting the much larger AJX002. China’s official Xinhua News Agency called them “cutting-edge surprise weapons for naval combat” designed for “covert deployment and blockade, autonomous detection and identification, and swarm-networked attacks.”

“Long gone are the days where China was reliant on Russia or other foreign systems,” wrote Mick Ryan, a retired Australian army major general and analyst at the Lowy Institute, in a research note on the drones and other systems on display. “This level of indigenous capacity infers high levels of sustainability in any future conflict.”

Still, he cautioned, “newer does not always mean better.”

“While most Western military equipment has been tested in Iraq, Ukraine and elsewhere, none of China’s new kit has.”

By MEAD GRUVER, Associated Press

A judge has ruled that Utah lawmakers must proceed with redrawing the state’s congressional district map right away, pointing to Texas and California in rejecting their argument that the job can’t be done in time for the 2026 midterm elections.

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The ruling keeps Utah firmly among states where partisan redistricting battles stand to tilt the outcome of the next congressional election.

Utah lawmakers were wrong to disregard an independent commission’s map in drawing one that has been used for the 2022 and 2024 elections, Salt Lake County District Judge Dianna Gibson ruled Aug. 25.

The map did away with a district in the Salt Lake City area that has swung between Republicans and Democrats in favor of a map where four districts, each with a piece of the urban corridor, have been won by Republicans with wide margins.

On Tuesday, Gibson denied state lawmakers’ request to keep her ruling from taking effect, rejecting their argument that her one-month deadline to adopt a map that complies with voter-approved standards is too short.

“While the timelines here are short, redistricting has been accomplished under tighter timelines in other cases,” Gibson wrote in her ruling.

In Texas, she pointed out, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott recently approved a redistricting plan at President Donald Trump’s urging that will likely add five Republicans to the U.S. House. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has responded with an effort to add five Democratic districts to that state.

Missouri has meanwhile launched an effort to add Republican seats to Congress through gerrymandering, the longstanding practice of both parties to draw states’ congressional districts for partisan advantage.

Traditionally states redraw congressional districts once a decade based on the most recent census. Trump, however, has been encouraging Republican-led states to redraw maps at mid-decade to help Republicans’ chances in the 2026 congressional election.

Utah has an opportunity to be different, Gibson wrote in her ruling.

“While other states are currently redrawing their congressional plans to intentionally render some citizen votes meaningless, Utah could redesign its congressional plan with an intention to protect its citizens’ right to vote and to ensure that each citizen’s vote is meaningful,” the judge wrote.

In 2018, Utah voters narrowly approved a ballot initiative that created a commission to draw boundaries for Utah’s legislative and congressional districts.

Two years later, the state Legislature repealed the initiative and turned the commission into an advisory board they proceeded to ignore. The state Supreme Court rejected the law, ruling lawmakers have limited power to change laws passed by voters.

The state high court sent the case back to Gibson to rule on the Legislature’s map, which she rejected.

Republicans in the state criticized last week’s ruling as “judicial activism in action.”

“Using earlier flawed rulings to justify their opinions over the principles of our founding is a special kind of hubris,” Utah Republican Party Chairman Robert Axson posted on X.

The Utah Supreme Court is unlikely to reconsider an issue on which it just ruled last year, however. Lawmakers might now choose to cut their losses by creating a single left-leaning block, or gamble on creating competitive districts that Republicans would have to fight to keep.

The U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile, is likely to keep out of the fray. The high court ruled in 2019 that gerrymandering is outside the purview of federal courts and should be decided by states.

Minnesotans can now open their phones, log onto an app and put down money on a prediction that the Vikings will beat the Bears on Monday Night Football for personal profit.

No, sports betting is still not legal in the Minnesota. But sports event contracts are, and Underdog began offering single-game prediction markets in 16 states on Tuesday, including here and Wisconsin.

Numerous other prediction markets such as Kalshi and Robinhood already offered such “contracts.” On sites such as Kalshi, you can place money on your predictions on anything ranging from who will win the New York City mayoral election to who will be the top artist on Spotify this year.

But Underdog’s new offering, made in conjunction with Crypto.com, makes it the first sports-gaming platform to dip its toes into prediction markets, per CNBC. FanDuel recently announced its intentions to do the same, in partnership with CME Group.

Underdog is a fantasy and sports gaming operator with an app already used by thousands of Minnesotans to predict whether certain professional and collegiate athletes will go higher or lower on various prop lines.

Event contracts are regulated by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission — which regulates U.S. derivatives markets such as futures and swaps — and not the American Gaming Association, meaning they don’t currently need to comply with state gambling regulations.

The contracts on Underdog are offered by Crypto.com Derivatives North America, which is already registered with the CFTC. The prices are determined by market movements rather than a bookmaker.

And yet, as of Wednesday morning, Underdog’s prediction prices closely mimicked what you could find for a team’s money line on mobile sportsbooks such as DraftKings and FanDuel, which widely operate in states in which sports gambling has been legalized.

Sites like Kalshi offer wide swaths of sports prediction markets, ranging from who’s going to win this season’s Super Bowl to who’s going to claim the 2025 Heisman Trophy.

Currently, the prediction market on Underdog’s app is limited to game results — simply who will win a specific contest, without any spread lines — in the NFL, MLB and college football. Multiple predictions cannot be parlayed together.

But for Minnesotans who would like to legally predict specific football game outcomes for potential financial gain this weekend, the option now exists.

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By Henry Larweh, Rachana Pradhan, Rae Ellen Bichell, KFF Health News

The Trump administration’s cuts to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding for state and local health departments had vastly uneven effects depending on the political leanings of a state, according to a KFF Health News analysis. Democratic-led states and select blue-leaning cities fought back in court and saw money for public health efforts restored — while GOP-led states sustained big losses.

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The Department of Health and Human Services in late March canceled nearly 700 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grants nationwide — together worth about $11 billion. Awarded during the COVID-19 pandemic, they supported efforts to vaccinate people, reduce health disparities among demographic groups, upgrade antiquated systems for detecting infectious disease outbreaks, and hire community health workers.

Initially, grant cancellations hit blue and red states roughly evenly. Four of the five jurisdictions with the largest number of terminated grants were led by Democrats: California, the District of Columbia, Illinois, and Massachusetts.

But after attorneys general and governors from about two dozen blue states sued in federal court and won an injunction, the balance flipped. Of the five states with the most canceled grants, four are led by Republicans: Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Ohio.

In blue states, nearly 80% of the CDC grant cuts have been restored, compared with fewer than 5% in red states, according to the KFF Health News analysis. Grant amounts reported in an HHS database known as the Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System, or TAGGS, often don’t match what states confirmed. Instead, this analysis focused on the number of grants.

The divide is an example of the polarization that permeates health care issues, in which access to safety-net health programs, abortion rights, and the ability of public health officials to respond to disease threats diverge significantly depending on the political party in power.

In an emailed statement, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the agency “is committed to protecting the health of every American, regardless of politics or geography. These funds were provided in response to the COVID pandemic, which is long over. We will continue working with states to strengthen public health infrastructure and ensure communities have the tools they need to respond to outbreaks and keep people safe.”

The money in question wasn’t spent solely on COVID-related activities, public health experts say; it was also used to bolster public health infrastructure and help contain many types of viruses and diseases, including the flu, measles, and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus.

“It really supported infrastructure across the board, particularly in how states respond to public health threats,” said Susan Kansagra, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

The Trump cutbacks came as the U.S. recorded its largest measles outbreak in over three decades and 266 pediatric deaths during the most recent flu season — the highest reported outside of a pandemic since 2004. Public health departments canceled vaccine clinics, laid off staff, and put contracts on hold, health officials said in interviews.

After its funding cuts were blocked in court, California retained every grant the Trump administration attempted to claw back, while Texas remains the state with the most grants terminated, with at least 30. As the CDC slashed grants in Texas, its measles outbreak spread across the U.S. and Mexico, sickening at least 4,500 people and killing at least 16.

Colorado, which joined the lawsuit, had 11 grant terminations at first, but then 10 were retained. Meanwhile, its neighboring states that didn’t sue — Wyoming, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma — collectively lost 55 grants, with none retained.

In Jackson, Ohio, a half-dozen community health workers came to work one day in March to find the Trump administration had canceled their grant five months early, leaving the Jackson County Health Department half a million dollars short — and them without jobs.

“I had to lay off three employees in a single day, and I haven’t had to do that before. We don’t have those people doing outreach in Jackson County anymore,” Health Commissioner Kevin Aston said.

At one point, he said, the funding helped 11 Appalachian Ohio counties. Now it supports one.

Marsha Radabaugh, one employee who was reassigned, has scaled back her community health efforts: She’d been helping serve hot meals to homeless people and realized that many clients couldn’t read or write, so she brought forms for services such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to their encampment in a local park and helped fill them out.

“We would find them rehab places. We’d get out hygiene kits, blankets, tents, zero-degree sleeping bags, things like that,” she said. As a counselor, she’d also remind people “that they’re cared for, that they’re worthy of being a human — because, a lot of the time, they’re not treated that way.”

Sasha Johnson, who led the community health worker program, said people like Radabaugh “were basically a walking human 411,” offering aid to those in need.

Radabaugh also partnered with a food bank to deliver meals to homebound residents.

Aston said the abrupt way they lost the funds — which meant the county unexpectedly had to pay unemployment for more people — could have ruined the health district financially. Canceling funding midcycle, he said, “was really scary.”

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist and promoter of vaccine misinformation, has called the CDC a “cesspool of corruption.” At HHS, he has taken steps to undermine vaccination in the U.S. and abroad.

Federal CDC funding accounts for more than half of state and local health department budgets, according to KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. States that President Donald Trump won in the 2024 election received a higher share of the $15 billion the cCDC allocated in fiscal 2023 than those that Democrat Kamala Harris won, according to KFF.

The Trump administration’s nationwide CDC grant terminations reflect this. More than half were in states that Trump won in 2024, totaling at least 370 terminations before the court action, according to KFF Health News’ analysis.

The Columbus, Ohio, health department had received $6.2 million in CDC grants, but roughly half of it — $3 million — disappeared with the Trump cuts. The city laid off 11 people who worked on investigating infectious disease outbreaks in such places as schools and nursing homes, Columbus Health Commissioner Mysheika Roberts said.

She also said the city had planned to buy a new electronic health record system for easier access to patients’ hospital records — which could improve disease detection and provide better treatment for those infected — but that was put on ice.

“We’ve never had a grant midcycle just get pulled from us for no reason,” Roberts said. “This sense of uncertainty is stressful.”

Columbus did not receive its money directly from the CDC. Rather, the state gave the city some funds it received from the federal government. Ohio, led by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and a Republican attorney general, did not sue to block the funding cuts.

Columbus sued the federal government in April to keep its money, along with other Democratic-led municipalities in Republican-governed states: Harris County, Texas, home to Houston; the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County in Tennessee; and Kansas City, Missouri. A federal judge in June blocked those cuts.

As of mid-August, Columbus was awaiting the funds. Roberts said the city won’t rehire staff because the federal funding was expected to end in December.

Joe Grogan, a senior scholar at the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Institute and former director of the White House Domestic Policy Council in Trump’s first term, said state and local agencies “are not entitled” to the federal money, which was awarded “to deal with an emergency” that has ended.

“We were throwing money out the door the last five years,” Grogan said of the federal government. “I don’t understand why there would ever be a controversy in unspent COVID money coming back.”

Ken Gordon, Ohio Department of Health spokesperson, wrote in an email that the $250 million in grants lost had helped with, among other things, upgrading the disease reporting system and boosting public health laboratory testing.

Some of the canceled HHS funding wasn’t slated to end for years, including four grants to strengthen public health in Indian Country, a grant to a Minnesota nonprofit focused on reducing substance use disorders, and a few to universities about occupational safety, HIV, tuberculosis, and more.

Brent Ewig, chief policy and government relations officer for the Association of Immunization Managers, said the cuts were “the predictable result of ‘boom, bust, panic, neglect’ funding” for public health.

The association represents 64 state, local, and territorial immunization programs, which Ewig said will be less prepared to respond to disease outbreaks, including measles.

“The system is blinking red,” Ewig said.

Methodology

KFF Health News’ analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grants sought to answer four questions: 1) How many grants have been terminated in the U.S. under the Trump administration since March? 2) Which states saw the most grants cut? 3) What were the grants for? and 4) Did the grant terminations affect blue, red, and purple states differently? This follows a similar analysis by KFF Health News for an article on nationwide NIH grant terminations.

Our primary data source was a Department of Health and Human Services website showing grant terminations. We compared an initial list of grant terminations from April 3 with one from July 11 to determine how many grants had been restored. The USAspending.gov database helped us track grants by state.

To classify states politically, we followed the same steps from our April coverage of National Institutes of Health grant terminations. States were “blue” if Democrats had complete control of the state government or if the majority of voters favored Democratic presidential candidates in the last three elections (2016, 2020, 2024). “Red” states were classified similarly with respect to the Republican Party. “Purple” states had politically split state governments and/or were generally considered to be presidential election battleground states. The result was 25 red states, 17 blue states, and eight purple states. The District of Columbia was classified as blue using similar methods.

This analysis does not account for potential grant reinstatements in local jurisdictions where the funds were awarded indirectly rather than directly from the CDC; it accounts only for the recipients’ location, and excludes grants terminated from Compacts of Free Association states and other foreign entities that received grants directly from the CDC. At least 40 CDC grants were terminated that were meant for global health efforts or assisting public health activities in other nations following the Trump administration’s order for the CDC to withdraw support for the World Health Organization.

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.