The father of the teen suspect in a Georgia high school shooting has been arrested. Economists expect the latest U.S. jobs report to reflect an employment slowdown. And Hunter Biden pleads guilty in his federal tax case.  

Here’s what to know today.

Father of Georgia school shooting suspect gifted son an AR-15 style rifle, sources say 

The day after a shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia left four people dead and nine others injured, details about the 14-year-old suspect and his father began to emerge.

Two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation said that Colin Gray, 54, bought his son, Colt Gray, an AR-15 style rifle as a gift, and that the older Gray gave his son the firearm at some point after the two had been interviewed by the FBI in connection with the teen’s threats to carry out a school shooting last year.

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Colin Gray was arrested yesterday on allegations that he allowed his son to possess a weapon. He was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

Colt Gray is scheduled to make his first court appearance this morning, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections. He is being charged as an adult.

Law enforcement officials also said the teen suspect had shown interest in prior mass shootings, particularly the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The information came as a result of the searches conducted during the investigation into the shooting.

Investigative documents also reveal more about the probe into the suspect and his father in May 2023 and why the case was ultimately “cleared.”

Read the full story here.

More coverage of the Apalachee High School shooting: 

• What we know about the four people who were killed.
• Students described the “haunting moment” when gunfire erupted.
• A new panic alarm system saved countless lives during the shooting, officials and advocates say. 

Jobs report comes at a crucial moment

The U.S. jobs market is losing steam — and today, Americans will find out by how much. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will report jobs data, including the unemployment rate for August. Wall Street expects the report to show a gain of 161,000 jobs, with the unemployment rate slipping to 4.2%, according to Dow Jones. 

This month’s update is especially important. The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates in the coming weeks. And economic issues are dominating the conversation as Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump vie for voters’ support. 

Economists are hopeful the U.S. sees a “soft landing,” in which the economy slows but unemployment and inflation remain relatively low. However, there have been mixed signals.

Hunter Biden pleads guilty in surprise trial twist

Hunter Biden’s sentencing fate is now in the hands of a federal judge in Los Angeles after he pleaded guilty to all charges in the federal tax case against him. The move avoids a potentially embarrassing trial for Biden, the first offspring of a sitting president to stand trial on criminal charges.

Biden first attempted to enter what’s known as an Alford plea, where a defendant pleads guilty because of the strength of the case against them while maintaining their innocence. But Biden instead wound up taking an open plea, where a defendant pleads guilty to all the charges without an agreed-upon sentencing recommendation from prosecutors. Read more about the unexpected development in the case.

Politics in Brief 

2024 election: Ahead of next week’s presidential debate, an analysis of Kamala Harris’ past debate performances shows how she prepares and how she navigates criticism. On the campaign trail, both Harris and Donald Trump are putting their time, energy and cash on the difficult task of winning over the tiny fraction of voters who haven’t yet picked a side.

Contested purchase: President Joe Biden is planning to announce that he will formally block Nippon Steel’s proposed $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, two people familiar with the matter said. Meanwhile, the political fight over the proposed sale is pitting some Pennsylvania steelworkers against each other — some from the same union.

Want more politics news? Sign up for From the Politics Desk to get exclusive reporting and analysis delivered to your inbox every weekday evening. Subscribe here.

Staff Pick: Ukrainians scramble to flee encroaching Russian attack

With Russian forces on the advance just five miles from the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovosk, holdout residents are saying goodbye to their homes, pets and a lifetime of possessions as they join the millions already displaced by the war. When it will be safe to return — or if there will be anything left to come back to — remains unclear. This sobering read from Richard Engel, Gabe Joselow and Victor Sema sheds light on the human realities at the center of a conflict that shows no sign of a resolution after two and a half years.

— Nick Duffy, platforms editor

NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified

Let’s talk about hair. If you’re the type who likes a low maintenance buzzed cut, consider one of these wet/dry head shavers recommended by barbers. Do you have long hair? One NBC Select reporter tried this buzzy new leave-in conditioner and highly recommends it.

Sign up to The Selection newsletter for hands-on product reviews, expert shopping tips and a look at the best deals and sales each week. 

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

For some, headlines such as “How this successful CEO starts their morning” offer hope. What if it took only a few tweaks to one’s daily schedule to achieve power, riches and smugness? For others this corner of the internet offers a warning. The price of success seems to be a 4am wake time followed by a glug of a celery smoothie while pumping weights. If that is what it takes to “win the day”, I’ll accept the loss.

What might an economist’s morning routine look like? I am not suggesting that their fresh-faced glow is something to aspire to. (I have attended enough economics conferences to confirm that this is not the median look.) I am suggesting that they think carefully about data, as well as optimisation under constraints.

So imagine an economist staring at their computer, trying to map out the best possible start to the day. First, they must work out what exactly they are optimising for. “Utility” is broad enough to capture most things, including the possibility of divorce if the optimal routine mysteriously lacks any childcare responsibilities. But it can be difficult to measure, so they pick productivity instead.

Next, they must decide whose preferences will be taken into account. The economist Emily Oster offers work sheets to help families hash out their mission statement and hourly schedule. But that all sounds a bit . . . collaborative. For simplicity, models often assume that households behave like a single individual, and this economist decides to model their household’s preferences as their own. Easy.

Then comes the scheduling. A glance at survey data reveals that the average American wakes between 6am and 7am. Sounds reasonable. But on average, people with a college education sleep less than those with at most a high-school degree. Maybe higher earners are responding to stronger incentives to stay awake. Or perhaps joining their ranks means waking up early to get ahead.

Pinning down causality is tough, but not impossible. Several studies draw on the fact that people tend to sleep a bit less when sunset is later. By comparing people who experience sunsets at different times thanks to their location, they can identify the effects of sleep on productivity.

One study found that in America an extra hour of sleep a week raised average earnings by 5 per cent, which the authors said was about as much as half an extra year of education. Another found that in Germany half an hour more sleep each week was associated with around 2 per cent higher earnings among full-time workers, with the largest effects for mothers. The economist gratefully deletes the “3am wake up” entry in their timetable.

Admittedly, these effects are averages across location, and not guaranteed individual returns. Perhaps the economist could assume that they are the representative agent, and that everyone else will join their newfound habits. They impulsively type in “6.30am wake up”, and move on to the next row.

The next task is to decide on optimal exercise. The economist decides to skip the agonising about causality; regular exercise is correlated with higher earnings, but then again, personal trainers don’t come cheap. Simpler to embrace the signalling element of the optimal morning routine, and simply pick whatever sport is most closely associated with being rich. Tennis and golf look good on this measure, but at 6am partners are hard to come by. Running it is.

Washing and grooming come next. (Please.) According to the American Time Use Survey in 2023, in women those with more education tend to spend more time on grooming, whereas for men the relationship is less obvious. By this point the economist has completely given up on strong evidence of causality, and simply writes “7.15am wash and other grooming in line with social norms”.

Then there is breakfast. The economist ambitiously writes down some options (conference-provided granola bar with juice; conference-provided cereal with long-life milk; conference-provided muffin with black coffee) but fails to find any randomised control trials to identify the best one. There is evidence that school breakfast programmes improve children’s outcomes, leading to the plain entry “have breakfast”. Next is the commute, and the work day begins.

The day after the economist formulates this grand plan, they sleep through their alarm and are woken by an unimpressed spouse reminding them that it is their turn to get the children ready for school. There is time for a shower but not breakfast. Revealed preferences suggest this is the utility maximising approach.

soumaya.keynes@ft.com

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The Economics Show with Soumaya Keynes is a new podcast from the FT bringing listeners a deeper understanding of the most complex global economic issues in easy-to-digest weekly episodes. Listen to new episodes every Monday on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you get your podcasts

One of two staffers involved in the altercation at Arlington National Cemetery is a deputy campaign manager for Donald Trump’s reelection bid, NPR has learned. The former president insisted this week the incident did not happen, highlighting a growing disconnect between the messaging of the candidate and his campaign. NPR is identifying both staffers after the campaign’s conflicting responses to the incident last week outside Section 60 of the cemetery, where many casualties of Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.

The two staffers, according to a source with knowledge of the incident, are deputy campaign manager Justin Caporale and Michel Picard, a member of Trump’s advance team.

Caporale is a one time aide to former first lady Melania Trump who left the White House to work for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis before returning to the Trump campaign. He was also listed as the on-site contact and project manager for the Women for America First rally in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021 where Trump urged the crowd to “stop the steal” before some of them stormed the U.S. Capitol.

After Trump participated in a wreath laying ceremony on the third anniversary of the deadly bombing at Abbey Gate in Afghanistan that killed 13 U.S. service members, Trump visited Section 60 at the invitation of some family members and friends of the fallen soldiers.

ANC rules, that had been made clear to the Trump campaign in advance, say that only an official Arlington photographer can take pictures or film in Section 60. When an ANC employee tried to enforce the rules, she was verbally abused by the two Trump campaign operatives, according to a source with knowledge of the incident. Picard then pushed her out of the way according to two Pentagon officials.

The campaign’s conflicting messaging on the incident

After NPR first reported the altercation last week, campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said they were “prepared to release footage” of the incident, and attacked the Arlington employee as someone “clearly suffering from a mental health episode.” Cheung also said they were granted access to have a photographer present, and pointed to a statement from Gold Star family members that invited Trump to attend the ceremony.

The campaign also released a TikTok video that included video footage from Section 60, including a smiling Trump flashing a thumbs up with family members at the gravesites. But other tombstones are visible in the picture, and at least one family of a fallen Green Beret has confirmed they did not give permission for his grave to be filmed or used in a campaign ad.

The Army released a statement last Thursday acknowledging that a cemetery employee “was abruptly pushed aside” and the campaign was warned ahead of time of the prohibition against photography and political activities at Arlington. The Army said the cemetery employee tried to de-escalate the situation after she was pushed, in hopes of not upsetting the Gold Star families in attendance.

The Army said a police report of the incident was filed, but that the employee had declined to press charges, and that the Army considered the matter closed, but added that “the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked.”

When NPR emailed both Caporale and Picard, Cheung responded, “I see you’ve been emailing some of our team members…As the Army has said, they consider this matter closed. President Trump was there to support the Gold Star families and honor the sacrifices their loved ones made.”

Cheung also included a social media post that shows a Biden campaign ad from 2020 that used images of the then-vice president at the cemetery in 2010.

Neither Cheung, Picard or Caporale responded to emailed requests for comment as of publication time. Reached by phone, Caporale referred questions to Cheung. The Trump campaign has still not followed through on its pledge to release video of the incident, despite repeated requests from NPR.

This week, Trump contradicted his own campaign with a post on Truth Social falsely calling the confrontation a “made up story by Comrade Kamala and her misinformation squad” that attacked Harris and Biden for not attending the private ceremony.

In an interview on Sean Hannity’s radio show Tuesday, Trump reiterated the false assertion that nothing happened at the cemetery, questioning the motives of the unnamed employee and downplaying the accusations as attacks over “publicity.”

“Do you notice that the person represented now doesn’t want to talk, he doesn’t want to speak or talk?” Trump asked, mislabeling the employee as male. “The nice thing, the beautiful thing, was all the parents and relatives got together and they said ‘That’s a false story, it was totally false.’”

Former President Trump polls well among veterans, and has many vocal supporters with military ties. Some of the family members who invited him to Arlington also spoke at the Republican National Convention, bashing Biden and vocally endorsing Trump.

“Joe Biden may have forgotten that our children died, but we have not forgotten — Donald Trump has not forgotten,” said Cheryl Juels in Milwaukee at the RNC in July. Juels is the aunt of Sgt. Nicole Gee, one of the service members killed at Abbey Gate in 2021, during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal.

“Joe Biden owes the men and women that served in Afghanistan a debt of gratitude and an apology. Donald Trump loves this country and will never forget the sacrifice and bravery of our service members,” she added. “Join us in putting him back in the White House.”

But those families do not have the power to suspend the rules at Arlington, where Section 60 is a fresh and on-going memorial to hundreds of recent war dead that, like the rest of the cemetery, is meant to be above politics.

The family of Master Sgt. Andrew Marckesano, a Green Beret who died by suicide after serving multiple combat tours and who is buried in Section 60, said according to their conversations with the cemetery, “the Trump campaign staffers did not adhere to the rules that were set in place for this visit.”

“We hope that those visiting this sacred site understand that there were real people who sacrificed for our freedom and that they are honored and respected and treated accordingly,” they said in a statement.

Jimmy McCain, a US Marine whose father was the late senator John McCain, also condemned the visit.

Trump has a history of controversial remarks about the military – he insulted Sen. John McCain for being a prisoner of war. He allegedly called dead soldiers “suckers” and “losers,” and recently stoked controversy for saying civilian Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients are much better than those who received the Medal of Honor — the highest military award in the country, often given posthumously.

Trump’s conflicting messaging on the campaign trail

Former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump takes part in a town hall moderated by Fox News broadcaster Sean Hannity at the New Holland Arena in Harrisburg, Pa. on Wednesday.

Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

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Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

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The incident at Arlington National Cemetery is the latest example of conflict between the messaging efforts of Trump’s campaign and the candidate himself since President Biden ended his reelection bid and Vice President Harris became the Democratic nominee.

The campaign’s attempts to use the bombing anniversary to attack Harris over the Afghanistan withdrawal, complete with videos from Gold Star family members blaming the administration for the deaths of their loved ones, has been overshadowed by the politicization of Arlington and its hallowed status.

Last week, both Trump and campaign staff sought to clean up his stance on abortion rights and a ballot measure in his home state of Florida. Trump initially seemed to signal support for the proposed amendment that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution and posted that his second term would be “great for women and their reproductive rights.”

After backlash from anti-abortion advocates and a statement from the campaign saying that Trump did not say how he would vote on the referendum, Trump eventually told a Fox News reporter he would vote against it.

Trump has also publicly questioned the rules, format and fairness for next week’s debate even as his campaign accepted the conditions and has worked behind the scenes to iron out details.

In a town hall conversation with Fox News host Sean Hannity Wednesday, Trump called debate host ABC News “dishonest” and implied without evidence that Harris would get questions in advance.

The debate will be a pivotal moment for Trump to try and regain momentum against Harris, who has erased Trump’s onetime commanding lead in the polls in the seven key battleground states.

In the six weeks since the switch up on the Democratic side of the race, an NPR review of Trump campaign speeches has found the former president struggling to pivot a campaign tailor-made to beat Biden into focus against his new opponent.